From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Sep 15 13:51:15 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!news-ge.switch.ch!news-kar1.dfn.de!news-was.dfn.de!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!uunet!in5.uu.net!news.u.washington.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Harvey S. Karten" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 10 Sep 1997 03:30:29 GMT Organization: None Lines: 107 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <5v548l$52i@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer32.u.washington.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #08923 Keywords: author=karten X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Content-Disposition: inline Originator: grahams@homer32.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8308 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1529 GATTACA By Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Columbia Pictures Director: Andrew Niccol Writer: Andrew Niccol Cast: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Alan Arkin, Jude Law, Loren Dean, Gore Vidal, Ernest Borgnine Gosh, it's bad enough that people are treated like second- class citizens because of their ethnic, religious, and racial circumstances, and as well for their sexual and ideological preferences. As the twenty-first century gets under way, a new excuse for contempt comes along: a disdain for people born out of the loving embrace of men and women, that is, people like you and me. What's so bad about being what we in the year 1997 consider insipidly ordinary? Just this: the vast majority of those living in the near future have been designed in a petri dish: a master race genetically programmed to perform specialized tasks just as purebred dogs are bred for specific traits. These offspring have been engineered like a genetically produced tomato to be free of the natural defects. Radial keratotomy is obsolete, as these new human beings will never become nearsighted. Forget Minoxidil: baldness has been programmed out of existence. No need for phen/fen or Prozac or nitroglycerine tablets as obesity, heart disease and depression simply cannot happen in this brave new world. We can only guess why, but one couple decide to have their kid born the natural way. When Vincent emerges from the womb he is immediately scanned by the latest medical equipment, and the news is not good: he has an 89% possibility of heart disease, is burdened with Attention Deficit Disorder (though we never see symptoms), and is expected to live only 30.2 years. No wonder the folks decided the next kid, Anton, would go the genetic route. "Gattaca," which is also the name of a corporation which sends specially designed human beings into space exploration, ranks with "Contact" as one of the two intelligent movies of its genre to hit the screens this year. While "Gattaca" is authentic sci-fi, it features no green people with antennas intent on destroying the earth, no Godzilla-like dinosaurs intent on trampling San Diego to a desert, no Buck Rogers laser guns or giant roaches or brilliant doctors who turn into ghouls without warning. This is adult sci-fi, the sort of picture which is about believable characters living in the very near future as an outgrowth of experiments actually being made today in space travel and genetic engineering. Like other films of its ilk such as "The Stepford Wives" (gender discrimination), and "Logan's Run" (age bigotry), it makes incisive, edgy commentary on our own contemporary world, by showing us the ugly face of prejudice--as experienced by the natural-born Vincent. Each time Vincent (Ethan Hawke) reads books about space travel, he is warned by his parents to stop dreaming. Because of his genetic flaws--weak heart and attenuated life span--he is unfit for the Gattaca project and will have to content himself with being a sweeper under the supervision of Caesar (Ernest Borgnine) inside the ultra-modern, impeccably clean building which houses the astronauts. When the bespectacled Vincent is introduced by a DNA broker, German (Tony Shalhoub), to Jerome Eugene Morrow (Jude Law), a superior specimen who has been recently paralyzed, the three work out a deal by which Vincent would assume Jerome's identity and pass himself off as one of the elite--a Valid rather than an Invalid human being. Convinced that one need not play the hand which has been dealt, Vincent uses Jerome's blood and urine samples to pass himself off in his new identity, determined through rigorous training to defy the diagnosis given him at infancy by the doctors. When the director of the space mission is murdered, detective Hugo (Alan Arkin) discovers an eyelash which is traced to Vincent, who is believed to have disappeared. As investigators close in on the disguised space traveler, Vincent plans his escape with the help of his new love, the genetically flawed Irene (Uma Thurman). By keeping the action down-to-earth and only cautiously going beyond what has already been accomplished by science, New Zealand born Andrew Niccol's directorial debut is this side of awesome. Using his own screenplay, Mr. Niccol offers a film which obliquely comments on the willingness of so many people nowadays to avoid reaching, much less going beyond, their potential. A film which could be used to inspire schoolchildren, "Gattaca" is never didactic: it does not wear its message of hope and inspiration on its sleeve, but unfolds a story which is compelling science fiction as well as thematically heartening. Ethan Hawke has gone beyond the teen heartthrob role, having matured into a handsome and confident twenty-something actor, whose performance is given solid backing by the tongue-in-cheek Gore Vidal as Gattaca Corporation's wily director, Uma Thurman as the somewhat repressed love object, Jude Law as the despondent, wheelchair-bound hero, and Loren Dean as the genetically perfect brother who turns out to be weaker than the all-too-human Vincent. Alan Arkin is not as amusing as he was as the psychiatrist in "Grosse Pointe Blank" but acquits himself professionally as the insistent detective investigating the director's murder. Writer-director Niccol is no Luddite. You do not emerge from his movie wanting to tear down the labs of geneticists. After all, if some piano sonatas are written so that only people with twelve fingers can play them--as is the case in this film-- let's design people with twelve fingers. In fact, he is not really against genetic engineering at all. He does, however, most effectively exploit current experiments in the field to fashion an inspirational movie. Even more important, he knows how to tell a crackling good tale. Rated R. Running Time: 105 minutes. (C) 1997 Harvey Karten From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Sep 15 13:51:20 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!news-ge.switch.ch!news-kar1.dfn.de!newsfeed.nacamar.de!newsfeed.internetmci.com!192.220.251.22!netnews.nwnet.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: James Berardinelli Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 15 Sep 1997 03:28:29 GMT Organization: None Lines: 125 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <5via0t$fof@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer04.u.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #08988 Keywords: author=berardinelli X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer04.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8362 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1536 GATTACA A Film Review by James Berardinelli RATING (0 TO 10): 8.0 Alternative Scale: ***1/2 out of **** United States, 1997 U.S. Release Date: 10/24/97 (wide) Running Length: 1:52 MPAA Classification: PG-13 (Violence, mature themes, profanity) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Cast: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Alan Arkin, Jude Law, Loren Dean, Gore Vidal, Ernest Borgnine Director: Andrew Niccol Producers: Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher Screenplay: Andrew Niccol Cinematography: Slawomir Idziak Music: Michael Nyman U.S. Distributor: Columbia Pictures Welcome to the 21st Century, an era when things aren't that much different, but people are. No longer is standard procreation the accepted way to reproduce. Consider all of the birth defects that such an approach can bring about. And, while it would be unreasonable to outlaw sex for the purpose of producing offspring, be aware than any children so conceived are almost certain to be "in-valids" -- genetically imperfect and ill-suited to be productive members of society. There is a better, more rational way -- a method that will guarantee health, stamina, and physical attractiveness. Let science do a little tinkering with the DNA. Everyone does it. Or at least everyone who wants their child to have a shot at a normal, well-adjusted life. This is the chillingly feasible premise of GATTACA. While in 1997, science has not yet perfected the genetic engineering techniques used in this film to routinely develop babies, every day brings the medical profession closer. As a result, GATTACA doesn't just function as a science fiction thriller, but as both a cautionary tale about the dangers of letting scientific ability outstrip ethics and as a morality play about the irrationality of bigotry. Andrew Niccol's oppressive future, which contains more than an element of Orwell's "Big Brother is watching" mentality, isn't just a clever backdrop against which to set a thriller. Instead, it's an integral part of the story. While it's true that there is a murder mystery, that's just a subplot. The main focus of GATTACA is the struggle of a genetically inferior man, Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke), to survive and prosper in a world where his kind is routinely discriminated against. Shortly after they were married, Vincent's parents decided to start a family the old-fashioned way, without any help from doctors and test tubes. The result was a boy who was diagnosed as 99% likely to have a serious heart defect. That rendered Vincent ineligible for all but the most menial of jobs. But his dream was to one day work at The Gattaca Aerospace Corporation and participate in the first-ever manned flight to the moons of Saturn. For most "in-valids", this would have remained a fantasy, but Vincent possessed the determination and drive to make it real. With the help of a shady middle-man, Vincent locates Jerome Morrow (Jude Law), a genetically superior individual who was paralyzed as the result of an accident. He agees to sell Vincent his identity (including blood and urine on demand, fingerprints, hair and other body debris, etc.). So, equipped with Jerome's genetic resume, which guarantees him work anywhere, Vincent applies for a position at Gattaca. He is accepted and quickly proves his worth to everyone. But, a week before he is to attain his lifelong ambition of making a space flight, he becomes a suspect in a murder investigation and his carefully-guarded secret is in danger of being exposed. One of the things that impressed me the most about GATTACA is its ability to keep the level of tension high without compromising the script's intelligence or integrity. First-time director Andrew Niccol, a New Zealander working in Los Angeles, displays a sure hand in his execution of the material. One scene in particular, a masterfully- edited sequence cutting back and forth between the cops (who are closing in) and a man struggling to accomplish a Herculean physical task, is guaranteed to render audiences breathless. And there are enough little twists and turns to keep even the most easily-distracted audience member involved. From a visual perspective, Niccol's cinematographer, Slawomir Idziak, uses his trademark filters to differentiate the soft, warm glow of the outside world from the harshness of the windowless interior of Gattaca. Ethan Hawke (BEFORE SUNRISE) is solid as Vincent, effectively portraying both his single-minded determination to rise about the disadvantages of his birth and his constant wariness of being caught once he has reached that goal. Jude Law's Jerome is a fascinating individual -- a man who is torn between despising Vincent because of his inferiority and admiring him because he's succeeding. In fact, Jerome is arguably GATTACA's most complex character. Meanwhile, Alan Arkin gives a delightful turn as a hard-bitten detective. Uma Thurman's limited range isn't taxed as Vincent's love interest (there isn't much chemistry between her and Hawke, but, since romance is a tertiary element of the story, it doesn't make much difference). And Loren Dean (the title character in BILLY BATHGATE) plays a cop with a special grudge against Vincent. The average thriller, even if it's set in a faraway or futuristic world, tends to offer visceral, ephemeral excitement, and not much else. However, while GATTACA has the energy and tautness to compare with the best of those, its thought-provoking script and thematic richness elevate it to the next level. GATTACA is not a perfect motion picture (I would have appreciated a little more political background), but, at a time when so many science fiction films are dumber than dirt, it makes for a refreshing change-of-pace, and is a fine addition to the Fall movie season. Copyright 1997 James Berardinelli - James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@mail.cybernex.net The website has moved!! The new address is: http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/ "The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is something between art and life. Unlike painting and literature, the cinema both gives to life and takes from it..." - Jean-Luc Godard From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Oct 30 14:08:59 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!newsfeed5.telia.com!masternews.telia.net!xinit!solace!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!news.idt.net!news-peer-east.sprintlink.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: wchamber@netcom.ca (Bill Chambers) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 24 Sep 1997 22:50:47 GMT Organization: NETCOM Canada Lines: 57 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <60c5g7$9jf$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer32.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 875141447 9839 (None) 140.142.64.6 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09109 Keywords: author=chambers X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer32.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8534 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1548 GATTACA ** (out of four) starring Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Alan Arkin, Jude Law written and directed by Andrew Niccol How I wanted to love Gattaca. From its bizzare opening credit sequence, in which we see nail clippings and stubble fall to a neon blue ground in slow motion, we know we're in store for unusual Hollywood fare. But as with many directorial debuts (Niccol was given a chance to direct based on the originality of his screenplay), Gattaca falls short not in ambition but in execution. Hawke stars as Vincent, a custodian in "the not so distant future", who dreams of becoming an astronaut. High hopes, indeed, for in this future births are genetically manipulated to help conceive "perfect" children, and our naturally birthed hero has both myopia and a heart condition which prevent him from becoming anything more than a second-class citizen. "In the future, discrimination has come down to a science," he intones in (seemingly endless) narration. Enter Jerome (Law), a "valid" citizen recently left paralyzed from a car accident. He'll assist Vincent by donating his perfect blood and perfect urine for a price, a price which the desperate janitor gladly accepts. A few months later, Vincent, now calling himself Jerome, is an eager executive of the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation, welcome in the rooms he was once only allowed to sweep. But when the Mission Director's murder coincides with "Jerome"'s promotion to astronaut, Vincent worries in the act of investigation his true identity may be uncovered. To his credit, Niccol sets about telling his complex story in a simple manner, with emphasis on emotions and not science. But said story is also repetitive, clicheed, and a romantic subplot between Vincent and Irene (Thurman) is oddly unerotic and unsentimental. Yes, they're essentially clones, but they're not robots! It doesn't help that Uma Thurman is weightless as an actress, upstaged by her own beauty. The most effective performance comes from Law, who in a few broad strokes creates a realistic, sympathetic, tragic figure worthy of a better film. And, while no plot string is left untied, there are too many endings and pat resolutions. More often than not lately I find myself wanting a film to finish twenty minutes before it does (Ransom is a perfect recent example), and Gattaca is no exception. Though I will have fond memories of Michael Nyman's lovely score, some of the production design, and the performances of Ethan Hawke and Jude Law, I will always recall Gattaca as having, like its main character, too many flaws to be taken seriously. -by Bill Chambers NEW MOVIE REVIEWS: The Sweet Hereafter, Suicide Kings & more at: Film Freak Central: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Set/7504 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Oct 30 14:09:11 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed1.news.erols.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: aw220@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Alex Fung) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 19 Oct 1997 19:00:25 GMT Organization: The National Capital FreeNet Lines: 134 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <62dlc9$if7$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: aw220@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Alex Fung) NNTP-Posting-Host: homer37.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 877287625 18919 (None) 140.142.64.2 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09410 Keywords: author=fung X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer37.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8735 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1560 GATTACA (Columbia - 1997) Starring Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law, Gore Vidal, Alan Arkin, Loren Dean Screenplay by Andrew Nicol Produced by Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher Directed by Andrew Nicol Running time: 112 minutes ***1/2 (out of four stars) Alternate Rating: A- Note: Some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers. Be forewarned. ------------------------------------------------------------- Nobody in Hollywood could have been more pleased with the scientific breakthrough announced earlier this year that British researchers had performed the first successful cloning of a live sheep than those at Sony Pictures associated with the GATTACA project. In terms of timing, such news couldn't have been more perfectly orchestrated, bringing to the forefront of public awareness the increasing sophistication in the science of genetic research over the past decade. When one combines this with the rampant paranoia and mistrust of the government pervasive in popular culture -- the number of conspiracy-oriented books lining shelves in stores and the success of similarly-themed TV show THE X-FILES is indication enough -- it's the perfect climate for the release of a film like GATTACA, which profiles a dystopic world of the future where one's DNA is the most crucial and valuable commodity. Yet, like most great science-fiction, the strength of GATTACA is that the film really isn't exclusively a science-fiction film -- at its core, it's a very human and often poignant story which deals with the themes of potential, spirit and identity. There's no heavy reliance on showy visual effects or displays of stunning future technology, as is typical in most sci-fi films; GATTACA is essentially a character-oriented drama spun off from a dynamite premise. It's the not-too-distance future, and scientific advancements have reached an advanced state where genetic tinkering allows the rich to create offspring literally devoid of any imperfection. Society has been divided into two distinct classes, where success is determined by science: the genetically-engineered 'Valids', and the naturally-conceived 'In-Valids' who are limited by society due to their imperfect DNA structures to serve as working drones. It's a world where prosperity is predetermined at birth; the Valids have the world at their feet -- an infinite realm of possibilities to pursue -- while the In-Valids have nary a reason to hope. So what's Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke), an In-Valid with nearsightedness, emotional volatility and a congenital heart condition, to do? Burdened his whole life by living in the shadow of his Valid brother Anton (Loren Dean), and by his seemingly-unfulfillable ambition to become an aeronautics navigator for the elite Gattaca Aerospace Corporation, he's left toiling as a maintenance worker, eyes aimed upwards at the stars. Of course, Vincent is not content to passively accept his fate, and GATTACA, then, is essentially an Underdog Film -- a familiar One Man Against Society story. On that level it works well, but where the film truly flourishes is when it focuses upon Vincent's indomitable determination to surpass expectations and push himself to the boundaries of physical limitation in order to attain his dream, against all forms of adversity. His relentless drive to succeed in a near-suicidal, virtually hopeless piece of subterfuge is powerfully affecting. Aided immeasurably by Michael Nyman's stirring score -- to date, the best score I've heard this year -- it's a genuinely moving celebration of the human spirit, while avoiding the trappings of becoming schmaltzy or sentimental. In fact, New Zealander screenwriter-director Andrew Nicol's feature debut is such an auspicious piece of work that it's mildly disheartening that the film delves into a generic thriller subplot, dealing with a murder mystery on the grounds of the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation. While this successfully taps into paranoiac elements -- given that Vincent's true identity can be traced through any form of DNA residue left, it's entrancing to observe his ritualistic grooming each morning to attempt to mask his true identity, and fascinating to watch him attempt to cover his tracks by stealthily vacuuming his desk and leaving decoy DNA samples (it reminded me in a sense to the great moment in WAIT UNTIL DARK where Alan Arkin's Harry Roat Jr. markedly pointed out that he hadn't *touched* anything in Susie's apartment) -- it also leaves gaping holes in logic which push credibility beyond the bounds of belief; consider, if you will, wily Detective Hugo (the aforementioned Mr. Arkin) unable to match a completely undisguised Vincent against a clearly-identical headshot image -- perhaps *Hugo* is nearsighted too. The murder mystery flounders, adding very little to enhance GATTACA and distracts from the film's primary theme, but it doesn't sink it. Another vaguely ineffective subplot in GATTACA involves fellow Gattaca Aerospace Corporation trainee Irene, a genetically perfect woman (Uma Thurman - 'nuff said) who provides an interesting counterpoint to Vincent in terms of their approaches to adversity, but generally serves merely a decorative role in the film. Among its arsenal of strengths (crisp, sharp visuals by cinematographer Slawomir Idziak; wonderful costumes by the legendary Colleen Atwood), GATTACA benefits from superb casting. Mr. Hawke is very solid and sympathetic as the undaunted protagonist and demonstrates that he can carry the film, while Ms. Thurman makes what she can out of her smallish role. And who else would one cast as the authority figure in the enormous future techno-bureaucracy of the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation other than Gore Vidal? The standout performance in the film, however, belongs to Jude Law. His performance of the crippled Valid unable to fulfill his predestined greatness, Jerome Morrow, is a remarkable combination of pathos, wit, and quiet resilience and strength, and his subtle blurring of the lines of identity between himself and Vincent is interesting. The strange, symbiotic relationship between Jerome and Vincent is fascinating and compelling, and Mr. Law and Mr. Hawke play well off one another. While Jan Roelfs' top-notch production design assists in creating a dystopic and conformist world, the ultimate credit must go to Mr. Nicol. His screenplay is intelligent, thoughtful, and well-written, and his direction is most accomplished. The impressive GATTACA marks a science-fiction film which eschews effects and explosions in favour of a more fundamentally human story, and succeeds wonderfully. While the world depicted in the film is cool, distance, and impersonal, at the heart of the picture is real warmth. - Alex Fung email: aw220@freenet.carleton.ca web : http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/ -- Alex Fung (aw220@freenet.carleton.ca) | http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/ "The separate forms of social behaviour that we associate with film and television are also starting to break down..." - Jonathan Rosenbaum, 1979 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Oct 30 14:10:22 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!news.algonet.se!news.maxwell.syr.edu!howland.erols.net!europa.clark.net!204.127.161.1!wnfeed!204.127.130.5!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "P.J. Gladnick" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 26 Oct 1997 19:11:51 GMT Organization: CyberGate, Inc. Lines: 104 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6304ln$qsi$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer25.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 877893111 27538 (None) 140.142.64.2 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09498 Keywords: author=gladnick X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer25.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8817 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1570 Have you ever taken a shower and watched hair, dandruff, and scuzz accumulate at the drain? Usually you don't even give a thought to it or even try to. Well, how would you like to spend a couple of hours watching a movie focused on pee-pee, dandruff, skin flakes, hair, and blood droplets? That's what you'll get if you waste your money on a piece of garbage known as GATTACA. This movie is supposed to be about a future where people are manipulated genetically to have high intelligence and peak physical condition. Meanwhile there are still people such as our hero, Vince, who didn't have the advantages of this pre-natal genetic manipulation and ends up with myopia and some heart problems. In this society there is genetic screening where the genetically advantaged get the best jobs and the others (the "Invalids") such as Vince get stuck doing janitorial duty which is what happens when he becomes part of the cleanup crew at the Gattaca space headquarters. Vince, having higher goals, pays for the use of Jerome's (a crippled"Valid") genetically superior material so he can pass himself off as a Valid and attaining his dream of blasting off to Titan. This is where all that scuzzy stuff that you don't even want to think about comes in. Vincent scrapes the skin scales off Jerome, borrows his blood and hair, and gets mad when Jerome drinks too much and pollutes his genetically superior pee-pee samples. A long time is spent watching Vincent cleverly planting Jerome's hair and dandruff at his work station to fool those in charge. He also wears a pee-pee bag in case they do spot checking for urine. On top of that he puts Jerome's blood droplets behind fake finger skin in so he can fool those little genetic testing machines that seem to be set up next to every water fountain and escalator. Yes, you will be treated to more loving closeups of pee-pee, dandruff, hair, and blood than you ever thought possible. As if you didn't have enough of the aforesaid scatalogical items, a murder occurs at the Gattaca headquarters and guess what? The cops come in and there is still more testing of pee-pee, blood, saliva, etc. etc.. All this was set in motion by a stray eyelash hair that Vincent overlooked by mistake (Remember Anita Hill and the pubic hair). So just as you get sick of pee-pee, hair, dandruff, saliva, and blood, we get even more of it in spades. But good news!---Director Andrew Niccol throws vomit into the mix just for a pleasant change of pace. No, they're not genetically testing the puke. It's just that Jerome gets drunk and barfs. Niccol does us the favor of showing the vomit flowing out of Jerome's mouth. Thank you for sharing. Oh, let's get back to what the space mission is all about. Don't expect to see much of anything about space technology. The Gattaca headquarters much prefers to spend most of its resources on those genetic machines. After all, they can't have one of those nasty "Invalids" infiltrating the scene. Let just one Invalid in, with his ordinary genetic material, and there goes the neighborhood. There is also something about Uma Thurman's secret in the movie. Actually it wasn't really all that big of a deal. Besides, by this time you're so sick of seeing more pee-pee, dandruff, hair, blood, and spit, that you really don't give a damn one way or another. Anyway, despite all hurdles our hero, Vincent, gets away with pulling off his scam of substituting Jerome's pee-pee, dandruff, hair, and blood for his own. By this time you will be both bored and grossed out. So what about Vincent's dream of blasting off to Titan? Well, take a guess how much of his time is actually devoted to training for this mission?..... 75%? Nope..... 50%. Still too high.....10%. WRONG! Actually zero time is spent on training for the mission. Instead all Vincent does, when not subtituting pee-pee, dandruff, hair, and blood, is tap away rapidly on a computer keyboard in a room filled with other genetically superior yuppies doing exactly the same thing. Comes the big day and Vince, along with the other genetically superior yuppies, enter the spaceship with no more enthusiasm than taking a coffee break. In fact, if memory serves me right (by this time I was bored to the point of narcolepsy) they just walked into the spaceship wearing coats and ties without even bothering to put on spacesuits. O.K., I said to myself, time to wake up for the payoff. After sitting for all this time with my senses being dulled by the director's obsession with pee-pee, dandruff, hair, and blood, surely there will be a magnificent sequence of the mission to Titan. Well, here it is in its totality---Vince stares out of the ship's porthole and thinks that he doesn't really care all that much any more about going to Titan. At this point the audience loses all care about Titan and this movie which mercifully ends before we can be treated to yet more pee-pee, hair, dandruff, and blood. The only surprise in the whole flick is that we weren't treated to loving closeup shots of doo-doo. If you really must see Gattaca then I would recommend that you stare at the scuzz gathered at your shower's drainage pipe and take a leak in a clear plastic cup while playing a sermonette on the radio. You'll have basically the same effect but at least you won't waste your money and a couple of hours of your life. The only thing GATTACA manages to accomplish is to be the absolute WORST movie of the year. And in a year of horrible flicks that is quite an accomplishment. PJ's rating: MM (Must Miss). Reviewd by P.J. Gladnick From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Oct 30 14:11:36 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed1.news.erols.com!howland.erols.net!wnfeed!204.127.130.5!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: E. Benjamin Kelsey Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 26 Oct 1997 19:12:11 GMT Organization: None Lines: 48 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6304mb$qsl$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer25.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 877893131 27541 (None) 140.142.64.4 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09501 Keywords: author=kelsey X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer25.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8818 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1571 GATTACA (PG-13) Review by E. Benjamin Kelsey Rating: * * * (out of 4) I admit that I was very excited to see "Gattaca", and perhaps my expectations influenced my feelings about the film, either good or bad. I think this is probably common thing that happens to movie critics. The premise for this movie really intrigued me, and I've been anxious to see it ever since I saw my first preview for it a few months ago. The point is, I quite liked this film. I battled with myself over whether it deserved more than 3 stars, but to be completely honest, it probably doesn't deserve more. DESERVE being the main factor. The plot for "Gattaca" is very intriguing though. The issues it brings up, even by themselves, made this film so noteworthy. Sure, some people will argue that similar things have indeed been done, but I still found this film to be very magnetizing. The main problem here is the lack of character development. I didn't find the stoic-ness of the actors to be quite as negative as many critics seemed to. I think their lack of emotional depth was all part of the story; part of what it was trying to say about the future. Still, the characters did need more attention, and perhaps their "true feelings" should have been buried deep down, stiffled, but making themselves known here and there. Instead, the people just seemd to be void of emotions. That may work for what the movie is trying to say, but when it comes to some of the central characters, we needed more to draw us in. The opening visuals were great. Nothing profound, but still, near microscopic images of falling fingernails, hairs, and skin cells were very well done. Nice imagery to start out the film. There were also a few problems with the plot besides character development. Some unanswered questions remained at the films end. Subtle continuities were passed over, but probably nothing to worry about. Other things, however, just seemed too simple or too implausable within the futuristic setting. "If they can do this in the future, how come they can't do this?" Those are the kinds of things that went thru my mind. This review sounds harsh and negative, but I do want to stress that I quite enjoyed the film and I would definitely recommend it. I think that all my "ranting and raving" was more to help myself feel at peace for not giving it a higher grade. That's how much I liked it. This is one of those films where I have to remind myself that QUALITY and ENJOYABILITY are not quite the same. Still, this is definitely a worthy effort! From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Oct 30 14:11:43 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!www.nntp.primenet.com!globalcenter1!news.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!news-out.internetmci.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!199.0.154.56!ais.net!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: respect@aros.net (Boyd Petrie) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 28 Oct 1997 00:01:22 GMT Organization: ArosNet Inc. Lines: 130 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <633a0i$3v5$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer38.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 877996882 4069 (None) 140.142.64.2 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09530 Keywords: author=petrie X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer38.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8853 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1576 Gattaca (1997) Rated PG-13 for brief violent images, language, some sexuality, and nudity --------- Out of 4 stars: ***1/2 (3 1/2 Stars) Starring: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Loren Dean, Jude Law, Alan Arkin, Tony Shalhoub, Gore Vidal, and Xander Berkeley ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With the release of GATTACA, I began to wonder why all science fiction films deal with destructive aliens, or aliens in general. Hollywood has given audiences plenty of thrills with those alien films, but what was usually lacking was a good story... and good characters... and good acting, etc (CONTACT being the exception). And for some reason, Hollywood has never taken a look at the aliens here on Earth. The closest, that I have seen anyway, was 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, which made mankind an alien race themselves, being dwarfed by the technology which they created. Now comes GATTACA, another film about technology reigning supreme, except here on our planet. The difference between 2001 and this one is simple: GATTACA is more frightening. Most of the concepts of this movie are based on recent discoveries in genetic engineering. Using this premise, writer/director Andrew Niccol creates some genuine suspense and thrills. Unfortunately, due to a lack of advertising, I fear GATTACA may fair horribly at the box office. Since seeing the film, I have been asking people if they have seen GATTACA. Lately, however, I have been asking them if they have even heard of GATTACA. Most people don't even realize that it is a film. Despite this fact, I surely hope that the audience members who have seen this film will tell their friends about it. Niccol's film deserves more than what Independence Day made because it is smarter, better produced, and more realistic. GATTACA begins in the 21st Century. Procreating is now done in a petri dish, and genetic engineering is the normal way of doing it. Natural child birth is considered old-fashioned. We are introduced to Jerome Morrow (Ethan Hawke), an employee of the Gattaca space program. One of the directors of the program has been murdered, and the main suspect is one Vincent Freeman. The only problem is that Jerome Morrow IS Vincent Freeman. Vincent was born the natural way when his parents decided on bringing their first child into the world through love. However, after his birth, and through several genetic tests, doctors tell his parents that he will have a 99% chance of a weak heart, as well as poor eye sight and a short life span. As a result, both parents decide to bring their next baby into the world via genetics. Anton (Loren Dean) is produced without flaws, and the competition between brothers spawns. Vincent has a dream to fly a solo-flight around the Titan, the 14th moon of Saturn, but because of his condition, Gattaca, and society in general, forces him to do menial labor around the company. Labeled an "in-valid," Vincent's dream seems impossible, until he meets a black-market DNA specialist, German (Tony Shalhoub). German introduces him to a "valid" who has been paralized from the waste down due to an automobile accident. Jerome Morrow (Jude Law) agrees to give Vincent all the proper identification tools (urine, blood, skin and hair samples, etc.) that he will need to get past Gattaca's tight security. In exchange, Vincent will provide Jerome with the rent money and friendship. After the murder, however, his dreams are put at risk due to one of Vincent's eyelashes left at the scene of the crime. Irene Cassini (Uma Thurman) is a genetically flawed "valid" working for Gattaca, and she begins to fall in love with Vincent/Jerome. GATTACA is one of the best science fiction films I have seen in a long time. Only two other intelligent science fiction films have come out in the past two years (CONTACT and THE ARRIVAL) and GATTACA will rank among them. Unfortunately, whenever one intelligent film comes out against special effects-laden films, it normally gets buried. The second best thing about GATTACA is the production design by Jan Roelfs. The orange glow of GATTACA's scenes are impressive, but the sets deserve most of the credit. The sets are very well done, creating a futuristic sense, but not too futuristic as to alienate viewers. As we look at the designs, we realize that these buildings aren't too far into the future. This brings the plot even more credibility as genetic engineering becomes more possible by every passing day. The best thing, however, is the plot. The story is more than your average sci-fi/thriller. At its heart, it develops a theme which is never overpowering but is always present. Perhaps Niccol is warning our race about the changes genetic tampering could bring. Would our society become a bunch of soulless zombies? Maybe human nature is a result of mankind's flaws. If we get rid of flaws, do we get rid of dreams as well? Niccol's intelligent script handles all these questions extremely well, and the result is an incredibly smart thriller set against a dramatic story, or vice versa. The power of the actors brings a lot of credibility to flat characters. While flat may sound like a poor job on Niccol's part, it actually enhances the meaning behind the story. Ethan Hawke has developed into a handsome adult actor, giving his best performance of his lifetime so far. His curiosity and motivation pushes his character past all the discouraging remarks from his parents and "valid" peers. Uma Thurman is... well, Uma Thurman. Her character is slightly underdeveloped, but the story isn't about her. However, Thurman gives a lot of depth to the flat character. Jude Law gives the most complex performance of the film with the most disturbingly realistic character. He provides several nice touches, and his final scene is a very touching and heartwrenching one. Loren Dean gives a nice performance in his well-developed character. Dean is also responsible for some of the most suspenseful scenes in the movie. Alan Arkin portrays one of the detectives with a little less more excitement than with his psychiatrist in GROSSE POINTE BLANK. Still, he does a good job. Gore Vidal and Xander Berkeley both provide some very good supporting roles, and Berkeley also gives a heartfelt discussion towards the end of the film. GATTACA is rated PG-13 for brief violent images, language, some sexuality, and nudity. Despite the somber and desolate mood of the entire film, I wasn't exactly prepared for the ending which left me feeling empty. It turned me off slightly, but then I realized that everything turned out the way it should have. If this had been a typical Hollywood film, it would have ended much differently. However, with all the mindless science fiction films out there, it is nice to have a film which doesn't talk down to its audience (I especially like the ironic title and how it consists of the four letters which make up the genetic coding: G, T, C, and A). Instead, it provides some much needed entertainment which gives us science fiction fanatics just what we want: a science fiction film with morals behind it. Whatever happened to giving the audience a lesson while entertaining? Hopefully more writers and directors will learn from GATTACA... and hopefully audiences will too. P.S. Personal note to P.J. Gladnick: How dare you call this film the worst film of the year. I can't even begin to image what film you do like. That frightens me beyond anything. Reviewed by Respect (pun intended) - respect@aros.net http://www.aros.net/~respect/movies.html From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Oct 30 14:11:48 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!www.nntp.primenet.com!globalcenter1!news.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: leeper@mtgbcs.mt.lucent.com (Mark R Leeper) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 28 Oct 1997 00:02:32 GMT Organization: None Lines: 89 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <633a2o$3vd$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer38.u.washington.edu Content-Type: text X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 877996952 4077 (None) 140.142.64.6 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09535 Keywords: author=leeper X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer38.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8851 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1575 GATTACA A film review by Mark R. Leeper Capsule: GATTACA is a cold film that frequently stretches credibility, but still it stands as one of the more intelligent science fiction films of the 90s. Anatomy truly is destiny in a world where almost everything about you can be determined quickly from a DNA sample. One man with a dream of traveling in space carries out a long identity deception in a world where it should be impossible, by using another man's DNA to fool all the detectors. This is also a philosophical detective story a well as a science fiction film that looks deeply at the implications of too much genetic knowledge. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4), 8 (0 to 10) While some pairs of identical twins lead surprisingly similar lives, frequently they do not and frequently they show different interests and potential. So there are limitations on the information about the adult that can be augured by a DNA examination. That makes it seem to be unlikely that we would ever get to the world as it is shown in GATTACA where everything anyone wants to know about you is encoded into your DNA. However, GATTACA assumes that the world has decided that DNA is the most reliable way of judging a person in spite of counter-examples like Vincent (played by Ethan Hawke) the main character of this story. Vincent has been delegated to the labor class based on his DNA. He looks wistfully at the rockets blasting off from the Gattaca Corporation and dreams of going off into space. He is highly motivated, but nobody notices because his DNA says that he just does not have the potential to be much more than a floor sweeper, permanently a part of the under-class. One wonders how so inaccuratea test could be accepted without question by a society, particularly after age of civil rights and civil liberties advances. Vincent knows he does not have a chance of being chosen by the Gattaca Corporation for one of their probes into space, so he decides to literally reinvent himself. There is a criminal element who are willing to match him up with a human with a much better DNA structure who can supply him with hairs, urine samples, blood samples and any other kind of sample so that all the samples that Gattaca takes from him will really be from Jerome (Jude Law). Jerome agrees to live with Vincent, providing him with sufficient biological specimens to give to the company and letting Vincent take on Jerome's name. This is a tricky process involving things like false finger tips filled with Jerome's blood form the ID machine that takes a sample. We see how Vincent is occasionally able to substitute Jerome's specimens for his own, but it is never really convincing that he could do that whenever the need arises. Vincent romances a fellow employee Irene Cassini (Uma Thurman) who gets pulled into this web of deception. The story moves at a languorous pace showing how the world has changed since the conversion to the DNA standard. Andrew M. Niccol who wrote and directed has given us a "not too distant future" that is not entirely convincing, but is still worth seeing. Loose ends abound, but that may be part of the point. For example, Vincent has taken over for Jerome and is telling the world that he is the same person, but Jerome has a "toffee-nosed" British accent and so presumably comes from an environment that would produce such an accent. Vincent does not havea British accent at all. Yet nobody seems to even care to compare Vincent to his claimed background. It is hard to place how far this world is in the future. Women and men at Gattaca dress in almost identical uniforms and women wear their hair in almost masculine styles. Cars make the whining sound of turbines, but still look a lot like the cars of today. The photography by Slawomir Idziak is just a bit showy, bathing some scenes in yellow or blue light. Particularly in the first half of the film it is often his camerawork that creates the mood in scenes devoid of any music. It gives the world a repressive, sterile, dry feel. Michael Nyman's score when it does kick in is repetitive almost to the point of being minimalist. GATTACA has a few places where it could have had the details better developed, but it is a complex story, perhaps of the complexity of a novel. It is told without the too common problems of science fiction of too much special effects replacing careful thought. If anything, GATTACA is a film that substitutes intelligence for explosions. This is about people caught up in a sort of cautionary dystopic world. It may not be a likely world, but it has well- developed character in this world. Overall I would rate GATTACA a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale. Mark R. Leeper mleeper@lucent.com Copyright 1997 Mark R. Leeper From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 4 17:48:12 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!solace!mn6.swip.net!nntp.uio.no!news.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Scott Renshaw Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 24 Oct 1997 00:00:06 GMT Organization: None Lines: 85 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <62ooe6$g2j$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: Scott Renshaw NNTP-Posting-Host: homer07.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 877651206 16467 (None) 140.142.64.7 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09453 Keywords: author=renshaw X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer07.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8911 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1585 GATTACA (Columbia) Starring: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Alan Arkin, Jude Law, Loren Dean. Screenplay: Andrew Niccol. Producers: Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher. Director: Andrew Niccol. MPAA Rating: PG-13 (profanity, sexual situations, violence) Running Time: 105 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw. GATTACA arrives with the kind of "torn from today's headlines" premise which should guarantee a provocative story. Studies suggesting genetic predispositions for certain medical conditions and stories of cloned animals have generated the uneasy feeling that ethics are trailing science by too wide a margin. On the heels of those stories comes a film about a near-future where genetic determinism has turned America into a de facto caste system. A blood test at birth brands every individual with an incontrovertible marking post of his or her potential; those whose base pairs don't line up quite right (a chance of developing diabetes, perhaps) are relegated to the fringes of society. Parents genetically engineer offspring rather than risking a "faith birth," because spinning the ribonucleic roulette wheel could have Junior designated a janitor before the umbilicus is cut. Into that world steps Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke), a "faith birth" doomed from the start with myopia and a weak heart. Vincent, however, isn't willing to play by the rules, not when his dream is to enter the space program headquartered at Gattaca. Enter a black marketeer (Tony Shalhoub) whose business is helping the genetically disadvantaged. Vincent is introduced to Jerome Morrow (Jude Law), a stellar genetic specimen who, inconveniently, was rendered parplegic in an auto accident. Thus Vincent and Jerome become a team -- Vincent providing a healthy body for Jerome's identity, and Jerome providing the necessary bodily fluids to validate that identity. There is only one small problem, or rather several million of them: any hair, any cell, any trace of Vincent could betray his true identity as an "invalid." Writer/director Andrew Niccol does an exceptional job of guiding the feel of this brave new world, from Jan Roelfs' sterile production design to Michael Nyman's restrained score, creating an intriguing backdrop for the exploration of how people deal with externally imposed limitations. The concept works; Niccol's execution of that concept often doesn't. GATTACA ends up reading much better than it plays, though it doesn't play terribly. It's simply an intellectualized film experience, one which attempts to make its point in overly hushed tones. In principle, that's a noble goal, particularly when some film-makers (who shall remain Oliver Stone) prefer to beat their messages into the back of your head. But GATTACA is framed as a suspense film and a murder mystery -- the unknown "invalid" called Vincent Freeman becomes a suspect when his hair is found where "Jerome Freeman's" boss has been killed -- and Niccol doesn't have a handle on creating the requisite tension. As many times as Vincent is almost discovered in GATTACA, the film rarely gets you caught up in his personal predicament. The subject matter is ready-made for inspiring passionate feeling, discomfort or outrage directed at a social order so contrary to our notions of personal responsibility and freedom. It's not enough for Niccol to give viewers something to nod their heads at in agreement. He should be working harder to make them angry. It's a particularly frustrating approach because GATTACA is unimpeachable on so many other levels. The performances are rock solid, the production values impeccable, and the script well-stocked with supporting characters who have a chance to learn about themselves through Vincent's determination. It just doesn't _move_; it's a philosophy lesson more than a gripping narrative. GATTACA is well-crafted enough that it could very well leave you thinking. If it left you _feeling_ nearly as much, it might be deserving of its own headlines. On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 faded genes: 6. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit Scott Renshaw's MoviePage http://www.inconnect.com/~renshaw/ *** Subscribe to receive new reviews directly by email! See the MoviePage for details, or reply to this message with subject line "Subscribe". -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 4 17:48:17 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed1.news.erols.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Michael Dequina Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 24 Oct 1997 04:47:05 GMT Organization: None Lines: 86 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <62p989$h0d$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer03.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 877668425 17421 (None) 140.142.64.2 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09460 Keywords: author=dequina X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer03.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8916 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1586 Gattaca (PG-13) *** (out of ****) What if the world somehow found a way to make discrimination into a science? That is the provocative question presented by Gattaca, the intriguing and atmospheric debut of writer-director Andrew Niccol. Those looking for a more effects-laden science fiction film will be disappointed by Gattaca, which centers more on drama than on pricey pyrotechnics. Set in "the not-too distant future," the film is set in a society where one's station in life is determined solely by genetics. Advances in genetic engineering have made natural breeding obsolete; to ensure a promising future for their children, prospective parents turn to geneticists to create their babies in a lab, where they take the most desirable genetic traits of the parents--and weed out their most undesirable--to create a "perfect" child. This genetic elite, called "Valid," are given all the golden opportunities in life--jobs, wealth--while the "In-valids," those created from natural breeding, make up the poor lower class. One of these "faith children," as they are called, is Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke), a precocious young man who dreams of flying to the stars. Even though his genetic makeup makes it impossible for him to realize his dream, he does so anyway--by dealing with a black market DNA broker (Tony Shalhoub), who arranges Vincent to swap places with Jerome Morrow (played with scene-stealing gusto by Jude Law), a valid whose genes are of no use after being paralyzed from the waist down. As Jerome, Vincent builds a successful career at the aeronautics corporation Gattaca and is all set to fly on a mission to Titan, one of Saturn's moons. But after the director of Gattaca is murdered, and an In-valid eyelash is found in the ensuing investigation, it seems like only a matter of time before "Jerome" is exposed. Much of this material harkens back to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, but I must give credit to Niccol, who paints a vivid, funny, yet disturbing portrait of this future society. The best moments come from the little details in the script. For example, when Vincent is born, the doctors can immediately determine his lifespan and what illnesses he is likely to suffer from; In-valids are sometimes referred to by the slur "de-gene-erate"; and some rather curious dating rituals: when Vincent expresses interest in Valid but slightly imperfect colleague Irene (a strangely uninteresting Uma Thurman, in a thankless role), she offers him a strand of her hair for a DNA check and says, "Let me know if you're still interested." Niccol's fascinating vision also extends to the striking cinematography, production and costume design by Slawomir Idziak, Jan Roelfs, and Colleen Atwood, respectively. They obviously did not have a substantially large budget to work with, but they succeed in creating an otherworldly look through minimalism. Buildings are shiny and smooth; people dress up in nice suits; and color is all but absent--everything seems constantly bathed in some shade of grey or silver, perfectly conveying the sense of coldness and lack of passion that dominates this glacial society. Niccol's attention to detail does not extend, however, to Gattaca's basic plot mechanics, which are rather contrived. The murder mystery plot turns out to be little more than a device to put Vincent in danger of being discovered and does not reach a satisfying conclusion on its own. A supposed plot twist involving one of the murder's investigators (Loren Dean) is predictable and uninspired, and a sibling rivalry subplot explored early in the film between Vincent and his genetically engineered younger brother is revisited later to very little effect; it just serves as an extraneous, redundant underscoring of the point that genetics are not everything. The one relationship that is supposed to lend some warmth to the proceedings, the romance between Vincent and Irene, fails to ignite; Hawke and Thurman may have generated sparks off camera, but very little, if any, of that rapport is displayed onscreen. When I first saw the trailer for Gattaca, I and a few other people snickered at the terribly banal tagline "There is no gene for the human spirit." As cornball as it is, that simple statement quite effectively sums up the true nature of the film. For all of its big Hollywood sci-fi trappings, Gattaca is essentially an intimate human story, and an unexpectedly moving and inspiring one at that. By the time it is over, one may just find oneself with (somewhat) renewed faith in the human race. __________________________________________________________ Michael Dequina mrbrown@ucla.edu | michael_jordan@geocities.com | mj23@the18thhole.com mrbrown@michaeljordanfan.com | mj23@michaeljordanfan.com mrbrown23@juno.com | mrbrown@iname.com | mst3k@digicron.com Visit Mr. Brown's Movie Site at http://members.tripod.com/~MrBrown/ Personal Page: http://members.tripod.com/~MrBrown/home.html Michael Jordan Sites: http://members.tripod.com/~mj23/mj.html & http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Field/2302/ "I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying. It doesn't matter if you win as long as you give everything in your heart." --Michael Jordan __________________________________________________________ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 4 17:48:21 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!solace!xinit!adm.icenet.no!news.IAEhv.nl!Supernews60!supernews.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!europa.clark.net!204.127.161.1!wnfeed!204.127.130.5!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Steve Rhodes Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 24 Oct 1997 17:11:16 GMT Organization: Internet Reviews Lines: 105 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <62qkrk$6v6$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: srhodes@ricochet.net NNTP-Posting-Host: homer30.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 877713076 7142 (None) 140.142.64.4 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09467 Keywords: author=rhodes X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer30.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8922 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1587 _______________________________________________________________________ GATTACA A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2 Has that body of yours not lived up to your expectations? Has it not proved suitably adroit? And has your mind been all too fallible? Well, if you lived in "the not too distant future" as Vincent does, then you could blame your defects on your parent's choice. Unless they recklessly conceived you in a "natural" or "faith" birth, you were genetically engineered in a petri dish, and your parents got to choose all of your characteristics from the best of their genes. All they needed to do was make their desires known to the genetic counselor and science took over from there. Although this may sound like Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," the mesmerizing new thriller GATTACA by writer and director Andrew Niccol has closer genetic kinship with CONTACT for its love of science and its mystical aura of an unknown future. Whereas CONTACT was laden with pretension, GATTACA, in contrast, takes a more lyrical than literal approach. Both share a surprising tranquillity even when their characters are being overwhelmed by the situation at hand. The movie GATTACA comes with its own fail-safe system. Even if you hate the story -- highly unlikely -- the production will dazzle you with its striking beauty. Unless all Hollywood misses seeing the film, there will undoubtedly be a host of Academy Award nominations for the film's artistic achievements. The sets by Jan Roelfs (LITTLE WOMEN) are breathtaking. From the futuristic treadmills to the desks surrounded by short cylindrical cubicles to the sleekly cold and starkly massive buildings, every set is a treat for the eyes. Slavomir Idziak's bronze-hued cinematography and the dreamy music by Michael Nyman (THE PIANO) give a peaceful edge to an intense story. The GQ uniform-like attire by Colleen Atwood (LITTLE WOMEN) reminds one of the lemmings-like schoolroom scene from PINK FLOYD - THE WALL. Even the film's hair stylist, Bette Iverson, deserves special mention for the high greasy sheen look. The net result of this creative team is to transport you to the future without heavy reliance on science fiction gadgets or fancy special effects. "They used to say that 'a child conceived in love is a child of happiness,'" complains Vincent, the film's protagonist. "They don't say that any more." Vincent, played with suitably cold precision but an undeniable inner charm by Ethan Hawke, has been branded for life by his parent's indiscretion. He was born because of an assignation in the backseat of a car rather than the proper mixing in a test tube. When the machine at his birth pronounced that his heart had a ninety-nine in a hundred chance of failure by age thirty, his parents decided not to gamble again. They paid the money necessary to ensure that Vincent's brother Anton (Loren Dean) would have a scientific birth. The future belongs to the genetic upper class. "We now have discrimination down to a science," complains the genetically challenged Vincent. Jobs go to the perfect, and constant urine and blood tests ensure that none of the riffraff sneaks in. Vincent has a single desire in life, to become an astronaut. Although the best he can do is secure a position as a night-time janitor in the space agency, Vincent has a plan, and what a plan, to break into the elite corps. Vincent procures the aid of a DNA broker (Tony Shalhoub) to fake an identity. Using the DNA from a donor named Jerome (Jude Law), the broker tells Vincent, "you could go anywhere with this guy's helix tucked under your arm." And he does. With an interview that consists of nothing more than a blood test, Vincent, hence forward known as Jerome, starts work as an astronaut. The riveting story devotes more time to the minutia of the ways the two Jeromes contrive to fool the agency than to the fake Jerome's romantic attachment to fellow agency scientist Irene Cassini (Uma Thurman). All of the acting is exceptional with Ethan Hawke, especially in his voice-over, being the best. In a richly textured show, many minor characters stand out. Alan Arkin and Loren Dean, for example, are marvelous as a detective and his investigator who look into the mysterious death of the director of the space agency. The film has enough material for a much longer film, but editor Lisa Zeno Churgin manages somehow to trim it down to normal length with the result that every minute is captivating. In a film with so many high points it becomes difficult to highlight a few. One has to be the chemistry between the real Jerome and his genetic fake. "I got the better end of the deal," reflects the genetic donor to his donee. "I only lent you my body, but you lent me your dreams." Even the small aspects such as the frequent rockets blazing off to the far planets give the show a serenity that has to be seen to be properly appreciated. My personal favorite: the way one character deduces that the space agency's astronaut is the ersatz Jerome. GATTACA is the rare show that far surpasses its already promising trailers. GATTACA runs a fast 1:52. It is rated PG-13 for a scene of a dead body and for mature themes. Although the film would be acceptable for kids nine and up, they probably need to be teenagers to be interested. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 4 17:48:26 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!www.nntp.primenet.com!globalcenter1!news.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: David Sunga Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 25 Oct 1997 04:26:21 GMT Organization: MegsInet, Inc. - Midwestern Internet Services Lines: 90 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <62rsdd$kjg$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer12.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 877753581 21104 (None) 140.142.64.4 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09480 Keywords: author=sunga X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer12.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8924 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1588 Review: Gattaca (1997) Rating: 3.0 stars (out of 4.0) ******************************** Key to rating system: 2.0 stars Debatable 2.5 stars Some people may like it 3.0 stars I liked it 3.5 stars I am biased in favor of the movie 4.0 stars I felt the movie's impact personally or it stood out ********************************* A Movie Review by David Sunga Directed by: Andrew Niccol Written by: Andrew Niccol Starring: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law, Loren Dean, and Alan Arkin Ingredients: Futuristic corporate world where genetics determines promotion, impersonator who bucks the system, girlfriend, murder Synopsis: In a world which lacks emotion or real relationships, Vincent (Ethan Hawke), a nearsighted young man with a heart condition, dreams of being selected for a manned space mission. Unfortunately, Vincent lives in a futuristic world with a rather cruel social system - - where society is based completely on DNA testing. The world is robotic, cold fish, and corporate; well-dressed crowds of people file behind desks in long, neutral office rooms after going through a series of DNA detection machines. In order to accomplish his astronaut dream, normal guy Vincent impersonates someone genetically perfect, since only genetically enhanced people can get white collar jobs. As the movie starts, Vincent is only moments from being selected for the space mission of his dreams. He's wearing a dark suit, and everyone calls him Jerome. Through a flashback and voice narration Vincent explains to us that he is not really Jerome. He is an imposter who is impersonating Jerome. He has risen through the ranks with the help of the real Jerome (Jude Law), a wheelchair-bound genetically enhanced person who is bitter at the system. (When an accident left him paralyzed and no longer elite, Jerome soon found he didn't like the system.) To spite the system, Vincent and Jerome have joined forces in an elaborate charade. Vincent has been impersonating Jerome, while Jerome has been supplying the blood, urine, fingernail and hair clippings, etc. needed in order to fool DNA testing. If they can manage the charade for just one more week, Vincent will accomplish his dream of participating in a manned mission to one of Saturn's moons. Unfortunately, when one of the directors at Vincent's workplace is murdered and police are crawling all over the facility, all it takes to discover Vincent and Jerome’s secret is an eyelash, a hair, a touched door handle, a print on a glass or a bit of saliva in the wrong place. Soon the innocent Vincent (in his guise as Jerome) is implicated in the murder, and the charade becomes a matter of life and death. How long can they maintain the charade? Opinion: New Zealander Andrew Niccol both wrote and directed this film. This is his directorial debut. This film is a suspenseful, intelligent science fiction piece whose main theme is impersonation (i.e. the film is not about romance, action, or solving a murder). The setting of the story is a rather robotic future, but despite the setting's lack of emotional warmth, it fascinates because the genetic situation appeals to our real life fear of the consequences of genetic tampering on society. 'Gattaca' keeps our attention with good old fashioned suspense, and the fear that the hero might be discovered at any time is with us all the away until the final 10 minutes of the movie. A subplot of the film is Vincent's romance with Irene (Uma Thurman). Here, too, the romantic element isn't emphasized but serves as another way the charade might be discovered; the charade makes the movie. On the negative side, the last 10 minutes of the film include a scene with a swim contest that doesn’t really matter, and an underplayed scene where Vincent sees a doctor before the movie ends. These last few minutes could probably be sharpened and improved by cutting out the swim contest entirely and hyping the suspense music on the doctor scene before the movie ends. I like the movie because of its underlying questions. Reviewed by David Sunga From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 4 17:48:30 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!www.nntp.primenet.com!globalcenter0!news.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: sfrevu@aol.com (Ernest Lilley) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.movies.reviews Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 28 Oct 1997 00:18:39 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Lines: 81 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <633b0v$661$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer14.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 877997919 6337 (None) 140.142.64.1 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09541 Keywords: author=lilley X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer14.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:1592 rec.arts.movies.reviews:8964 SFRevu Goes to the Movies: GATTACA British filmmaker Andrew Niccol wanted to make a film longer than 60 seconds. With the release of GATTACA, billed by Columbia Pictures as a "science fiction thriller", he has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. Alas. Not only is GATTACA longer than a minute, its pacing appears to stretch the time spent watching the movie like some relativistic time dilation. Ethan Hawke (EXPLORERS, DEAD POET'S SOCIETY, REALITY BITES) plays Vincent, a child conceived out of love and good intention, into a society where conception is a matter of careful genetic screening and manipulation. Although he escapes the intervention of the pre-natal geneticist, at the moment of his birth he receives his sentencing as a drop of his blood is read into sequence analyzers to be interpreted like the entrails of a sacrificial fowl. Damned by a litany of probable shortcomings, including a tendency towards violence and an expected coronary failure by age 30, Vincent is a willful weakling, ever in the shadow of his genetically flawless brother, the product of his parents' recantation of nature and society's taste for gene tailoring. Though the odds are on the genetically perfect, Vincent possesses that popular element of classic SF - the indomitable spirit, manifested in the desire to become an astronaut. Specifically a "Navigator Third Class" on the upcoming first mission to Titan, a role that none but the most genetically pure could be considered for. Vincent may not be perfect, but he never accepts his limitations. Through a very special broker he finds a member of the genetic elite who has suffered a crippling injury and assumes his identity through a bizarre symbiosis where the cripple, Jerome (Jude Law) provides him with a name and enough body waste and clippings to fool the genetic scanners at the GATTACA space agency. Why they call it GATTACA is one of the film's little mysteries. Nobody ever says. Vincent, now Jerome, rises to the top of the organization and reaches out to accept the coveted space on the Titan mission. When the agency's director is beaten to death with a keyboard and the entire organization is subjected to increased scrutiny, Jerome/Vincent's deception becomes even more fragile. At the same time he falls in love with Irene (Uma Thurman - BATMAN AND ROBIN, PULP FICTION), despite the androgynous 1940s business suits that everyone wears. Will he manage to avoid the murder investigation and join the Titan mission? Will Irene lose her flawed heart to Jerome/Vincent? Will this movie ever end? A remarkable cast assembled to create this deadpan dystopia. Alan Arkin plays a future Colombo on the killer's trail. Gore Vidal is the Mission Director who has devoted his life to the exploration of space, Ernest Borgnine (Borg-9? Any relation to Seven of 9?) is a janitor whose role in the film is only hinted at. His real contribution to the film is lying, I suspect, on the editing room floor. Andrew Niccol wrote and directed this bit of supposedly serious SF, but I suspect that he's never read SF and is a bit put off by it. Mr. Niccol's future is as devoid of trappings of technology as he could make it. The only science evident exists in black boxes that pop up pictures of the owners of whatever bit of hair, skin or spittle is fed into them. Evenings are spent in classic smoke filled salons in formal evening wear and "hovercraft and epaulets" have been strictly banned from the set. Mr. Niccols has taken it on himself to reinvent Science Fiction by removing the techno-glitter from Sci-Fi and creating the world in a retro-classic image. Although the cast praised his vision, comments by the writer/director are conspicuously absent from the studio's press kit. His moral message of the inadequacy of class distinction is delivered with little enthusiasm, and less plausibility. Yes, it is a frightening prospect that testing may reveal so much about us that we never dream of challenging our proscribed limits. No, I didn't believe that Jerome/Vincent could get away with it, or even that he should. Worse, I strongly doubt that anyone will remain interested in the film long enough to come to their own conclusion. Even if you were to remove the minute traces of SF from the film it would teeter shakily on its underpinnings of Mystery and Romance. If studios cannot bear the thought of turning to authors of SF for good SF scripts, they should stick to Sci-Fi SFX extravaganzas. If GATTACA is the Science Fiction Drama of the year, 'tis a lean year indeed. reviewed by: Ernest Lilley - SFRevu http://members.aol.com/sfrevu From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 4 17:48:34 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed1.news.erols.com!howland.erols.net!ais.net!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Christopher Null Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 3 Nov 1997 04:38:26 GMT Organization: None Lines: 45 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <63jkg2$6v6$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: null@sirius.com NNTP-Posting-Host: homer18.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 878531906 7142 (None) 140.142.64.2 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09628 Keywords: author=null X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer18.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8959 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1591 . GATTACA A film review by Christopher Null Copyright 1997 Christopher Null I'd been looking forward to GATTACA since its clever promotions began several months ago, promising a story of a future-gone-wrong, a time when ethnic prejudice has given way to something even more frightening: genetic discrimination. It's in this setting that the genetically-inferior Vincent (played by Ethan Hawke) tries to advance his station by assuming the identity of Jerome (played by the creepy Jude Law), and putting the moves on the also-flawed Irene (Uma Thurman). Everything goes well for awhile, and just as Vincent is about to realize his dream of going up as part of a space mission, the web starts to untangle. Here's where the problems of GATTACA start: you see, as a mystery, it really isn't much of one. The investigation into the murder of the mission director who may have known Vincent's secret is never very focused, and Alan Arkin's "Columbo"-type flatfoot seems to uncannily know where to go at every turn. By the time the investigation is over, the whole thing has felt like a put-on to waste an hour of screen time. On the other hand, GATTACA succeeds quite well at making us feel like this could really happen. Director Andrew Niccol has put beaucous work into the set and costume designs, and the yellowish lighting makes GATTACA a real creep-out. As a cautionary tale about not messing with Mother Nature, GATTACA is similarly successful, if obvious about it. This movie is great if you're looking for more of 1984 than STAR TREK for your brand of future-shock... and if you're willing to believe that Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman are flawed in any way, GATTACA's definitely your cup of tea. RATING: ***1/2 |------------------------------| \ ***** Perfection \ \ **** Good, memorable film \ \ *** Average, hits and misses \ \ ** Sub-par on many levels \ \ * Unquestionably awful \ |------------------------------| -Christopher Null / null@sirius.com / Writer-Producer -Visit the Movie Emporium at http://www.filmcritic.com -and Null Set Productions at http://www.filmcritic.com/nullset.htm From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Feb 4 15:07:58 1998 From: James Sanford Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 3 Feb 1998 05:46:45 GMT Organization: University of Washington Lines: 44 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6b6b05$dcs$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer04.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 886484805 13724 (None) 140.142.64.6 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #10868 Keywords: author=sanford X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer04.u.washington.edu Path: news.ifm.liu.se!genius.dat.hk-r.se!seunet!news2.swip.net!mn6.swip.net!nntp.uio.no!news-feed.inet.tele.dk!bofh.vszbr.cz!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:10143 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1743 GATTACADirected by Andrew Niccol In the future, a "love child" could face problems far worse than anything ever imagined by Diana Ross and the Supremes. After all, in the world of "Gattaca," the right genetic make-up determines your future, and parents are willing to pay plenty for designer genes to ensure that their children live long, healthy and comfortable lives. Those unlucky enough to be "natural births" run the risk of being labelled "in-valid," a title that guarantees a future of menial work. Such is the pre-determined destiny of Vincent (Ethan Hawke), the product of his parents' romantic getaway on "the Detroit Riveria." Vincent dreams of being an astronaut, but, having been born with poor vision and a 99 percent chance of heart disease, he's quickly set straight by his father, who warns him that "the only way you'll see the inside of a spaceship is if you're cleaning it." So what's a guy to do but borrow the identity (i.e. the blood, urine, skin cells and hair) of a "valid" to get into Gattaca, the training ground for astronauts? "Gattaca" is a smart, beautifully crafted piece of not-so-science-fiction that manages to successfully mix social commentary and suspense into a generally enthralling story. Writer-director Andrew Niccol's vision of the world of the near-future is strikingly simple, an environment dominated by golden hues and dull greys, sparked ocassionally by electric blues and greens. While technology has marched ahead--with instant DNA analysis making life much easier for police officers and employers--fashion has gone back to the Camelot years, with men confined in rigid business suits and women sweeping up their hair into Doris Day-style honeybuns. Michael Nyman's spare neo-classical score complements the picture beautifully. Vincent's risky masquerade would have provided more than enough of a plotline by itself, but Niccol raises the stakes by introducing a love interest (Uma Thurman) whose outer perfection hides her inner weaknesses, as well as including a hastily resolved murder subplot that's easily the movie's flimsiest element. Niccol also gets solid performances out of Hawke and Jude Law, as the crippled genetic superman who sells his persona to Vincent. Aside from looking gorgeous throughout, Thurman doesn't have much to do, but she seems much more at home here than she did in the campy climate of "Batman & Robin." Unlike most recent science-fiction, "Gattaca" actually gives you something to talk about on the way home, and you're certain to think of it again the next time you clip your fingernails and buff away some dry skin. James Sanford From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Apr 3 21:41:05 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed2.news.erols.com!erols!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: bucky@alphalink.com.au (Luke Buckmaster) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 4 Mar 1998 17:33:32 GMT Organization: OzEmail Ltd. Lines: 111 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6dk39c$qdv$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer16.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 889032812 27071 (None) 140.142.64.7 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #11927 Keywords: author=buckmaster X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer16.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:10509 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1796 REVIEW: Gattaca (1997) by Luke Buckmaster To model a human's DNA would be the ultimate of playing God - and director Andrew Nicol pretends its all ahead of us "in the not too distant future." But in the cold world of Gattaca, a society that creates a race of "super" people, the word "perfection" has been taken one step too far. Any person who enters the world from a "faith birth" (without use of DNA structuring) becomes known as an "In Valid", an outcast who often will end up with the lowest possible occupation and living conditions. As the movie so bluntly states, it's technically not discrimination - but who would hire an In Valid over a person structured to perfection? This is one of the many themes that is raised in the most engrossing Science Fiction film this year, that not only presents us with raw creativity and imagination but also intelligence and emotion on equal terms. The film follows the narrative life of Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke), a child born the old fashioned way; with values and morals that would be respected in the 90's but scorned at in the society of Gattaca. At the time of his birth Vincent's life expectancy was estimated at a lousy 30 years; so after discovering this and realizing that he would have to live the life of a third rate citizen, his parents agree for genetics to decide the fate of his future brother Hugo. Once Hugo is "born", Vincent begins to realize just weak he is, and despite his never ending determination to function successfully in society he is continuously outclassed and outmatched by people who proclaim that there is no way to defy genetics. Luckily for Vincent, there is no gene for the human spirit. As Vincent grows up, and his desire for social acceptance is spurred on by his dream to be an astronaut, he realizes that the only way to hide his identity is to borrow someone else's. Enter Jeromre, a very contrasting character to Vincent, who was structured as an extraordinarily high-class citizen - perfect in every way. But, after a failed suicide attempt, Jerome is left a paraplegic and is now useless in Gattaca's unforgiving society. Deciding to cash in on his injury, Jerome forfeits his identity to Vincent for a large paycheck that will ensure a comfortable life for him. Of course with every person there is unique DNA and blood types, so Vincent quickly learns to follow a set of important activities to ensure that his identity remains a secret. Brushing as much hair as possible off his body, using Jerome's blood and vicariously cleaning everything around him soon become necessary for survival and placement amongst the society which surrounds him. Vincent soon becomes attracted to fellow worker Sally Ed (Uma Thurman), a beautiful young women with a terminal heart disease. A lively romantic subplot emerges between these two characters, and as Vincent becomes more and more desperate to conceal his identity their relationship will almost certainly end in disaster. But Gattaca has much more in stall for viewers than just a Sci Fi drama with a romantic flavor - twists and developments in its story provide constant entertainment of a fulfilling and rewarding kind. The claustrophobic and all too modern sets of Gattaca give an eerie representation of Niccol's futuristic world, perhaps making you feel that this sort of place may be around the corner - but it's impossible - impossible tell you, for anything like Gattaca to ever exist. The very thought of DNA structuring society is laughable, however the illustrious mind of Niccol surely has created something truly special in a genre which surely produces more mindless duds then masterpieces. So Gattaca's basic idea may appear to be a little silly - who cares? It is not so much a film's plot that makes it great; rather the way it is executed, and although this film doesn't score many brownie points in believability it more than makes it up with maturity and style. Many may argue that this "believability" factor is it's ultimate downfall, but anyone who does not have the imagination to fill in the blanks should steer clear of Gattaca all together. For example in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park, we almost believed that rampaging dinosaurs could exist - simply because the exact theory behind it was presented from the start and shown in a society we can recognize and relate with. But Gattaca quite obviously steers clear from all the hows and whys, and presents us not with theories, beliefs and assumptions, but with cold hard imagination and a touch of wonder. The all-important question - is this necessarily bad? For the scientific minded perhaps yes - but those who value physiological effects more than absent minded mathematics will appreciate Gattaca's character's on going relationships and the way they react in a society obsessed with perfection. When creating a film, it is one thing to hand out emotion on a platter (ala Jerry Maguire, where the movie's surroundings allow for a loving relationship between certain characters), but where the basic setting is a cold and unforgiving society it is entirely different. It truly takes skill to produce characters that people care about, situations which people think about and issues that people can relate with when apparent boundaries are set. Andrew Nicol does this beautifully, and not for one minute does the science side of things replace Gattaca's superb story and its brilliance in fabulously crafted scenes. As an avid fan of numerous reviewers, it has been bluntly obvious to me that many different opinions have been expressed about this film - a film that does something different, strays off the track of clichi characters and events and presents us with something truly brilliant indeed. If you are able to open your mind and absorb only a fraction of what Gattaca has to offer, a very memorial experience is to be had. Its still early days but I have no doubt in proclaiming Gattaca as one of the best films of 1997. 5 stars out of 5 Daring to be different, Gattaca stands strong as a modern masterpiece. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Movie Zone: http://moviezone.alphalink.com.au bucky@alphalink.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Apr 3 21:41:09 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!nntp.texas.net!nntp.giganews.com!news.giganews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail From: bucky@alphalink.com.au (Luke Buckmaster) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Lines: 111 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6d5l8e$fep$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 888559694 15833 (None) 140.142.64.4 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #11216 Keywords: author=buckmaster X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer05.u.washington.edu Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 15:02:30 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.43.16.3 NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 09:02:30 CST Organization: Charter Communications Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:10730 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1812 Review: Gattaca (1997) by Luke Buckmaster To model a human's DNA would be the ultimate of playing God - and director Andrew Nicol pretends its all ahead of us "in the not too distant future." But in the cold world of Gattaca, a society that creates a race of "super" people, the word "perfection" has been taken one step too far. Any person who enters the world from a "faith birth" (without use of DNA structuring) becomes known as an "In Valid", an outcast who often will end up with the lowest possible occupation and living conditions. As the movie so bluntly states, it's technically not discrimination - but who would hire an In Valid over a person structured to perfection? This is one of the many themes that is raised in the most engrossing Science Fiction film this year, that not only presents us with raw creativity and imagination but also intelligence and emotion on equal terms. The film follows the narrative life of Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke), a child born the old fashioned way; with values and morals that would be respected in the 90's but scorned at in the society of Gattaca. At the time of his birth Vincent's life expectancy was estimated at a lousy 30 years; so after discovering this and realizing that he would have to live the life of a third rate citizen, his parents agree for genetics to decide the fate of his future brother Hugo. Once Hugo is "born", Vincent begins to realize just weak he is, and despite his never ending determination to function successfully in society he is continuously outclassed and outmatched by people who proclaim that there is no way to defy genetics. Luckily for Vincent, there is no gene for the human spirit. As Vincent grows up, and his desire for social acceptance is spurred on by his dream to be an astronaut, he realizes that the only way to hide his identity is to borrow someone else's. Enter Jeromre, a very contrasting character to Vincent, who was structured as an extraordinarily high-class citizen - perfect in every way. But, after a failed suicide attempt, Jerome is left a paraplegic and is now useless in Gattaca's unforgiving society. Deciding to cash in on his injury, Jerome forfeits his identity to Vincent for a large paycheck that will ensure a comfortable life for him. Of course with every person there is unique DNA and blood types, so Vincent quickly learns to follow a set of important activities to ensure that his identity remains a secret. Brushing as much hair as possible off his body, using Jerome's blood and vicariously cleaning everything around him soon become necessary for survival and placement amongst the society which surrounds him. Vincent soon becomes attracted to fellow worker Sally Ed (Uma Thurman), a beautiful young women with a terminal heart disease. A lively romantic subplot emerges between these two characters, and as Vincent becomes more and more desperate to conceal his identity their relationship will almost certainly end in disaster. But Gattaca has much more in stall for viewers than just a Sci Fi drama with a romantic flavor - twists and developments in its story provide constant entertainment of a fulfilling and rewarding kind. The claustrophobic and all too modern sets of Gattaca give an eerie representation of Niccol's futuristic world, perhaps making you feel that this sort of place may be around the corner - but it's impossible - impossible tell you, for anything like Gattaca to ever exist. The very thought of DNA structuring society is laughable, however the illustrious mind of Niccol surely has created something truly special in a genre which surely produces more mindless duds then masterpieces. So Gattaca's basic idea may appear to be a little silly - who cares? It is not so much a film's plot that makes it great; rather the way it is executed, and although this film doesn't score many brownie points in believability it more than makes it up with maturity and style. Many may argue that this "believability" factor is it's ultimate downfall, but anyone who does not have the imagination to fill in the blanks should steer clear of Gattaca all together. For example in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park, we almost believed that rampaging dinosaurs could exist - simply because the exact theory behind it was presented from the start and shown in a society we can recognize and relate with. But Gattaca quite obviously steers clear from all the hows and whys, and presents us not with theories, beliefs and assumptions, but with cold hard imagination and a touch of wonder. The all-important question - is this necessarily bad? For the scientific minded perhaps yes - but those who value physiological effects more than absent minded mathematics will appreciate Gattaca's character's on going relationships and the way they react in a society obsessed with perfection. When creating a film, it is one thing to hand out emotion on a platter (ala Jerry Maguire, where the movie's surroundings allow for a loving relationship between certain characters), but where the basic setting is a cold and unforgiving society it is entirely different. It truly takes skill to produce characters that people care about, situations which people think about and issues that people can relate with when apparent boundaries are set. Andrew Nicol does this beautifully, and not for one minute does the science side of things replace Gattaca's superb story and its brilliance in fabulously crafted scenes. As an avid fan of numerous reviewers, it has been bluntly obvious to me that many different opinions have been expressed about this film - a film that does something different, strays off the track of clichi characters and events and presents us with something truly brilliant indeed. If you are able to open your mind and absorb only a fraction of what Gattaca has to offer, a very memorial experience is to be had. Its still early days but I have no doubt in proclaiming Gattaca as one of the best films of 1997. 5 stars out of 5 Daring to be different, Gattaca stands strong as a modern masterpiece. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Movie Zone: http://moviezone.alphalink.com.au bucky@alphalink.com.au ----------------------------------------------------------------- . From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 14 13:23:30 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!fu-berlin.de!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!wn3feed!worldnet.att.net!140.142.64.3!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Curtis Edmonds Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 7 May 1998 03:18:39 GMT Organization: Hollywood Stock Brokerage & Resource Lines: 82 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6ir96f$i89$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer14.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 894511120 18697 (None) 140.142.64.2 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #12333 Keywords: author=edmonds X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer14.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:11573 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1903 Curtis Edmonds -- blueduck@hsbr.org In 1986, British police officers changed the face of law enforcement forever. Baffled by two brutal rape-murders, the police decided to take blood samples from every young man in the area. The search for the murderer, dramatized in Joseph Wambaugh's "The Blooding", ended in the apprehension and conviction of a suspect based solely on genetic identification. The same concept is carried to a fare-thee-well in "Gattaca", a cautionary fable about the dangers of genetic discrimination. Our hero is Ethan Hawke, a genetically disadvantaged social climber trying to join the genetically perfect elite in a futuristic society where it's not what you know, or even who you know, but who you are that counts. The only "network" you use to get a job at Gattaca, Inc. is the double-helix network of your DNA strand. Like a light-skinned African-American "passing" for white in a racist society, Hawke is forced to live a precarious double existence, buying tissue and blood from a disabled person with superior gene structure (Jude Law) and living in what looks like a Danish modern genetics lab. When the murder of a co-worker puts the law onto Hawke's genetic trail, a game of cat-and-mouse ensues. The futuristic trappings aside, the plot of "Gattaca" doesn't differ from "The Blooding" in any appreciable way. Hawke, innocent of the crime of murder, has committed the crime of genetic impersonation, and it's just a question of how long he can evade the constant genetic probes before his own genetic structure gives him away. That's not interesting. The characters aren't interesting, either. Hawke plays his poor-man's-Tom-Cruise part to the best of his abilities, but he does nothing to hold the audience's interest. Uma Thurman is wasted as a genetically superior ice princess. The supporting cast isn't much better, with a raft of refugees from NBC's Thursday night schedule (Tony Shalhoub, Ernest Borgnine, Blair Underwood) and not much else. All the performances are strictly room-temperature, save for Jude Law's turn as the sarcastic wheelchair-bound tissue donor. My question is this. You're parents, right? You can make your kid into anything you want to be, whether he's a pianist with twelve fingers or a prototype NFL quarterback. You would think that billions of different people would make different choices, right? But in "Gattaca", it looks like everyone has bought the same showroom model -- the Yuppie LX. (The set design looks just like an Infiniti ad.) The "Gattaca" employees are bland, dull, Organization Men in identical designer suits. Looks as though they've edited the gene for non-conformity right out of the genome. If this is the point of the movie -- and it may well be -- it may not be worth making. And if they're going to show one side of the coin -- the genetic elite setting orbital patterns in a Bauhaus office complex -- I think the filmmakers have an obligation to show the dark side of genetic tampering. I was driving down Guadalupe Avenue in Austin this evening and got a good look at what the GenX college students are doing as far as hair color and tattoos -- I wonder what would happen if they gave these kids their own gene splicer to play with? But there's no subversive cyberpunks anywhere to counterbalance the bland conformity that is "Gattaca". "Gattaca" (the name, by the way, derives from the letters G, A, T, and C in genetic coding) is a serious, almost humorless movie. To it's credit, the film does a good job in raising questions about the intersection of human rights and genetic technology, almost before they've been asked. But as entertainment, it's a snooze, and as a thriller, it's a flat out disappointment. Grade: B- -- Curtis Edmonds blueduck@hsbr.org The Hollywood Stock Brokerage and Resource Your Guide to the Hollywood Stock Exchange http://www.hsbr.org/brokers/blueduck/ "Are you kidding? No jury in the world would convict a baby for murder. Well, maybe Texas." -- Chief Clancy Wiggum From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Aug 10 13:21:54 1998 From: Kevin Patterson Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 25 Jul 1998 16:29:07 GMT Organization: None Lines: 88 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6pd14j$r00$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer19.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 901384147 27648 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #13509 Keywords: author=patterson X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer19.u.washington.edu Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!grendel.df.lth.se!news.ind.mh.se!news.solace.mh.se!news.xinit.se!nntp.se.dataphone.net!newsfeed.online.no!news-feed.ifi.uio.no!howland.erols.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!wn3feed!worldnet.att.net!140.142.64.3!news.u.washington.edu!grahams Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:12617 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2047 Film review by Kevin Patterson GATTACA Rating: *** (out of four) Director: Andrew Niccol Screenplay: Andrew Niccol Starring Cast: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law As we near the end of the millennium, one of the most popular topics in modern narrative fiction has been how humankind's recent technological and scientific advances might change certain things we take for granted about life. Andrew Niccol, who has since gained notoriety for his screenplay of THE TRUMAN SHOW, puts in his two cents on the subject with GATTACA, a science-fiction film in which all procreation is artificial, genetically engineered for the best possible results. Vincent (Ethan Hawke), the protagonist of GATTACA, was conceived naturally, and has a heart condition which the family's doctor predicted would kill him by the age of thirty. Vincent, and others like him, are labeled "invalids." Discrimination against them is not sanctioned by the law, but it goes on as a matter of routine nonetheless. The only way that he can hope to succeed at his lifelong dream of going on a mission into outer space is to assume the identity of another valid who, for whatever reason, can no longer fulfill his or her place in society. An underground figure helps him locate Jerome Morrow (Jude Law), who has been paralyzed in an accident, and the two of them come to an agreement. Jerome will supply Vincent with the necessary genetic samples to make the impersonation hold up under investigative scrutiny, and in return Vincent will continue to provide for his lavish lifestyle through income from his new position at Gattaca, the future equivalent of NASA. Thematically, the most obvious note that GATTACA strikes is a cautionary one about genetic engineering: Niccol seems to have been inspired at least partly by the seminal BLADE RUNNER, in which scientists created quasi-human "Replicants" who were then simply shut off or killed when they became inconvenient. However, there's also a parallel between the world of GATTACA and our own, in which discrimination is technically illegal but nevertheless occurs on a regular basis. Vincent is surprised to discover, when he applies at Gattaca, that his "interview" consists of a urine test, and I would not be shocked to learn that interviews for some socially marginalized groups last just about as long at certain American companies. Niccol also does a good job handling the science fiction elements of the story. The futuristic set design, with its cold, metallic interiors, is impressive and conveys a sense of technological menace without being too overdone or outlandish. The technology is also pretty believable: both artificial fertilization and the genetic testing and cataloguing through bodily samples are within the realm of today's science. GATTACA also manages to recapture some of the wonder of space travel that has been diluted in modern culture by all the bug-monster alien invasions and "hyperspace jumps" that tend to dominate science fiction. It keeps the science simple and believable (Vincent's mission is a trip to Mars), and focuses on its human implications rather than on special effects. GATTACA does unfold rather awkwardly at times. There's a long narration from Vincent near the beginning that only serves to make brain-poundingly obvious what would have eventually become evident anyway. A murder mystery is introduced, apparently to provide Vincent with cause for fear of discovery (since the detectives' DNA investigation could turn up evidence of an "invalid" at Gattaca), but it fails to generate much tension: it's just another expository device. There's also a sibling rivalry, which occupies too many of the film's closing moments for a subplot that had disappeared after the introductory narration, and a romance between Vincent and a co-worker (Uma Thurman) that is fairly formulaic. The triumphs of GATTACA are to be found mostly in the care with which Niccol has designed his future world: the science is very plausible, the visual design is outstanding, and the issues raised by the film are good food for thought. It would have been better if he had found a more smoothly flowing story to frame in this world, but his conception of it is still enough to qualify GATTACA as one of the more interesting recent science fiction films. Send comments to ktpattersn@aol.com. - - - - - - - - - - - Film Reviews, X-Files, Millennium, David Lynch, The Coen Brothers & more: Visit my web sites at http://members.aol.com/KTPattersn/index.html - - - - - - - - - - - From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Feb 11 16:31:51 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!Sprint!news-peer1.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: James Brundage Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Gattaca (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 15 Jan 1999 06:47:49 GMT Organization: None Lines: 61 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <77moal$1o9m$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: "Mr. Brundage" NNTP-Posting-Host: homer21.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 916382869 57654 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #16150 Keywords: author=brundage X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer21.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:15316 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2242 Gattaca (1997) Written and Directed by Andrew Niccol (The Truman Show) Starring: Ethan Hawke (Great Expectations) as Vincent Freeman / Jerome Morrow Uma Thurman (Pulp Fiction) as Irene Cassini Alan Arkin (Grosse Point Blank) as Investigator Hugo Coldspring Jude Law (The Talented Mr. Ripley) as Jerome Morrow / Eugene Morrow Loren Dean (The End of Violence) as Investigator / Aton Freeman Elias Koteas (The Thin Red Line) as Antonio As Reviewed by James Brundage We're all becoming Orwells. Hollywood, me, you, the Internet, everyone is becoming in a constant state of surveillance. It's a trend. Enemy of the State and The End of Violence use it. The Truman Show, Dark City, Pleasantville. All of them used it. And, as good as any one of those films, Gattaca uses it. Gattaca is a character drama in the guise of a thriller, the same way that The Truman Show was a drama in the guise of a comedy. Andrew Niccol works his beautiful charms with both of them. In Gattaca, he offers us a stunning vision of the not-so-distant future, a time where genetic engineering is so commonplace that it is common practice. The world, of course, has the drawback that anyone who was not genetically engineered is part of a new class of society, called an invalid. Vincent Freeman was born this way. He chooses, however, not to remain and invalid but become what is known as a de-generate, someone who uses other people's blood, urine, hair etc. to fake a genetic code superior to their own. His dream was to end up in space and being this particularly loathed thing is the only way he is able to do it. Lending his dream to the real Gerome Morrow, a suicidal cripple, the two band together to get him into space. Everything is going well, he is set to leave in a week. Then the mission director is murdered. This occurs, in my opinion, only to keep less intelligent viewers interested in the story, which contains enough pathos to warrant me watching it if it didn't involve a murder at all. As Vincent tries to keep his secret, he is falling in love with Irene Cassini, another worker at Gattaca, the story's equivalent of Cape Canaveral. The panic caused by the moment causes each person involve to examine themselves, society, and the state of the world. The sad thing about Gattaca is that so many people will hate this movie because of its utterly slow pace. It does not keep the interest of someone not intrigued by people, which encompasses most every viewer today. So that takes out studio fans, and its Star Trek target audience. Everyone else, including you indie lovers, should tape it the next time it airs on HBO, though. http://fly.to/criticsheaven From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Mar 24 13:26:37 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!netnews1.nw.verio.net!netnews.nwnet.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: postmaster@cjc.org (Cheng-Jih Chen) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Gattaca (1997) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 23 Mar 1999 06:01:22 GMT Organization: Interport Communications Lines: 126 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <7d7ani$uqe$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> Reply-To: postmaster@cjc.org NNTP-Posting-Host: homer27.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 922168882 31566 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #17383 Keywords: author=chen X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer27.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:16568 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2275 The local video store is doing a rent-one-DVD-rent-second-free thing this month, and I picked up Gattaca as the bonus movie last week, having missed it when it was in theaters. Intelligent science fiction films, where the focus is on the play of ideas rather than wizbang special effects of aliens, is a rare thing. Gattaca follows in the tradition of Blade Runner rather than Independence Day. True, Blade Runner has dazzling visuals, but the core of the film is the philosophical question, what does it mean to be human? Gattaca's particular idea, that genetic information contains much information which may be used destructively, has timeliness. Witness, for example, the recently hubbub over the New York Police Department's proposal to begin DNA sampling of everyone arrested. Privacy advocates note that this goes far beyond fingerprinting as identification, as genetic information may contain confidential medical information. This is perhaps how the filmmakers envision their dystopia coming about: baby steps down a slippery slope. The plot of the movie concerns the efforts of Vincent to pass himself off as Jerome. Vincent is freeborn, conceived without the benefit of genetic tinkering to, say, remove a tendency for heart problems or learning disorders. Jerome is the result of such extensive manipulation, gifted with the genes of high intelligence, physical performance, and slicked back hair. He, unfortunately, broke his back, and is confined to a wheelchair. He sells his identity to Vincent, literally his body, as identity consists of blood and urine samples, flakes of dandruff and loose hair, all carefully drawn and placed where snoops may find it. Vincent's ultimate goal is to travel in space. All the effort to disguise himself as Jerome goes towards getting into Gattaca, some sort of future space agency in which only the genetically perfect are selected. The bulk of the film shows the plot starting to unravel, as someone is murdered on Gattaca's premises and Vincent leaves an eyelash in the wrong place. This is a stylized, designed future, a vision of the world as decorated by Hugo Boss. The geneticall perfect were well-tailored suits, the offices are quiet, sleek temples of efficiency. Space travel here does not involve the sensible application of duct tape in the right places, but well-apportioned dabs of hair gel for that perfect look. Yes, the film goes out of the way to emphasize the dominance of style and look in this world. Actually, one nice style effect is the garb of the detectives investigating the case. The long gray coats and fedoras suggest the 1930s, when Fascism was at its high tide, and genetic discrimination more acceptable. This sort of style is also somewhat embodied in the cars, and the look of the high end night clubs. Well, there are some flaws. The, uh, cosmetic flaws include the unnoticed necessary condition of the main character looking like, say, Ethan Hawke, instead of looking like, say, me. Ethan Hawke can pass himself off as a genetically scuplted uebermensch to Gattaca Human Resources and Uma Thurman; I doubt I can. While there may not be a gene for the human spirit, Our Hero wouldn't have gotten far without looking good in the thousand dollar suit. There are nice touches to the film, touches that add credibility to this world, a necessity for science fiction. One is the Genetic LoveTest, sort of like http://www.lovetest.com, but where you enter hair or saliva samples instead of Zodiac signs. Yes, genetic testing trickling down to the advertisement-supported mass market. True, the filmmakers were trying to convey how twisted this society is by having this sort of genetic assay be par for the course, but I just liked the furtive, cyberpunk grungy seediness of the whole thing. For the larger issues, I'm of two minds about the films portrayal of genetic discrimination. Many of the traits mentioned in the film, especially the positive ones, may well have tendencies because of genetics, but they are also strongly influenced by environment. A tendency for lung cancer may only be expressed if that person smoked. Some gene for musical talent won't matter one jot if that person mangled his hand in some childhood accident. Contingencies of the environment matter. More strongly, genes are carriers of evolutionary information, and nothing more. We know very clearly that they do not constitute the entire person. I have doubts that any reasonable society would ignore this. I also don't have serious problems with using genetics to correct clear biological problems, like diabetes or tendencies for breast cancer. Genetic technology, like most technologies, can be used for both good and evil. It's up to the culture using it to determine that congenitcal heart defects are something to be addressed, while hair color is not. Perhaps I have more faith in such matters than I should. Culture cuts both ways. Even primitive assays can be used for what we would call evil purposes. Consider China's shortfall of baby girls, because the culture places prominence on firstborn sons. Simple miotic fluid assays are sufficient to cause this deficit, to say nothing of sophisiticated genetic tests. Arguably, this is the practice of leaving babies on the mountaintop made more precise. Interestingly, the filmmakers, on one of the DVD extras, seem to claim that once the Human Genome Project is complete, we will begin to control our own evolution. This is clearly wrong: we've been controlling our own evolution since the beginnings of civilization, as natural selection no longer really applies. Culture has a long shadow. The film also trips lightly past the issue of remediation after birth. It appears that all of medical technology has wilted away in favor of genetic intervention during conception (for that matter, detective works seems to have suffered a similiar wilting, but that's a plot matter rather than a thematic one). Treating, say, heart murmers with surgery, or high cholesterol with diet and exercise seems to have slipped everyone's mind. This blindness to what medical technology should be able to do in this world is symptomatic of the pure focus on genetic consequences. The DVD, which, unfortunately, I only had for one night, has a selection of "lost" scenes, which were cut for pacing or thematic reasons. In particular, the "Coda" sequence -- over a starry background text noting that the Human Genome Project is nearing completion, and that many of the Most Interesting People of the Millennium had genetic defects -- was thankfully, tactfully cut. The filmmakers perhaps realized that they were approaching serious overkill by whipping out the central theme and repeatedly slapping the audience with it. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Dec 19 14:47:51 2003 From: John Ulmer Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Gattaca (1997) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.past-films Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2003 20:15:38 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 36440 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1223867 X-RT-TitleID: 1080254 X-RT-SourceID: 1382 X-RT-AuthorID: 6769 X-RT-RatingText: 4.5/5 Summary: r.a.m.r. #36440 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Lines: 90 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.Update.UU.SE!puffinus.its.uu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!erinews.ericsson.se!erix.ericsson.se!uab.ericsson.se!'newsfeed1.telenordia.se'!algonet!news.man.lodz.pl!news2.icm.edu.pl!newsfeed.tpinternet.pl!newsfeed.news2me.com!sn-xit-02!sn-xit-06!sn-post-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8224 rec.arts.sf.reviews:708 GATTACA | 4.5/5 stars | I like movies that take place in the not-too-distant future. It allows for repetitive viewings for years to come, primarily because audiences will always be able to believe that the future they are witnessing may be right around the bend. As great a film as it is, "2001: A Space Odyssey" predicted advancements that never came - which, in retrospect, all seem quite dated. It's still an undoubtedly great film, but the wonder of the technology has somewhat diminished - but when a film says it takes place in the not-too-distant future...you can never say it predicted wrong. Gattaca is a futuristic space station that employs perfect people to work on perfect missions to space. Vincent (Ethan Hawke) was a rare child, an embryo not edited in any way, shape or form to improve characteristic traits. As soon as the child is born, blood is taken and analyzed. It is predicted that young Vincent will be overweight, suffer from heart problems and die by the age of 30. It never happens. Vincent, as a young man, is healthy - physically and emotionally. He doesn't suffer any breakdowns, his heart never fails, and he is simply a normal human being. He wears glasses on his weak eyes, and that is the only indication that he is somewhat human after all. Other children, including his brother, are taken after conception and placed under the care of scientists who can alter genes and take out such unwanted traits as obesity, harmful physical conditions, and damaging addictions that could cause the soon-to-be-born individual's future self. Vincent dreams of becoming a space explorer, of joining Gattaca and traveling to distant planets. His dreams are all ruined, though, because he is not perfect like everyone else. So what do you do if you can't fit in? Buy your way in. Vincent pays a crook (Tony Shalhoub) to find an individual with good traits who would be interested in swapping identities. He does, and presents Jerome (Jude Law) to Vincent. Jerome used to be an Olympic Silver Medal swimmer until he became paralyzed from the waist down. His injury was not reported in the United States, but rather overseas, and so Vincent assumes Jerome's identity, copying his features and mannerisms and so on and so forth so that he can pass as Jerome and be accepted into Gattaca. Tricky stuff is involved, such as occasional urine samples and daily blood checks (to see if the workers at Gattaca are "Valid" or "Invalid"). Jerome pees into bags and draws blood, and Vincent pays the rent in exchange for his favors. They both think they may have a chance at a future when Irene (Uma Thurman) starts to suspect something and begins a dangerous love affair with Vincent, that only ends in truth. Andrew Niccol's flair for technological advancements of the future shines through in "Gattaca." He's the man responsible for the Jim Carrey vehicle "The Truman Show" and last year's funny black comedy "S1m0ne." This is his finest achievement, a story deeply rooted in both the present and the future. It bears a message that everyone should be given a shot, irregardless of physical conditions, and it also presents us with amazing futuristic contraptions and settings. It's a very good movie. There's something I've noted about Andrew Niccol movies, however, that is harder to spot but nevertheless very present in "Gattaca." It's a superficial feeling. I sensed it in "The Truman Show," "S1m0ne," and again in "Gattaca." It hit me just now that it's the wide gaps in the man's screenplays -- in "The Truman Show," my enjoyment in the film was hindered by its almost ludicrous example of how a television show based solely around one man might exist. (Truman would have to be pretty naive not to notice certain things when he was younger, and not only that, but the entire idea has many plot holes that I usually don't care about but couldn't shrug off.) "S1m0ne" had the same sort of moments where you had to stop a minute and say, "Wait, hold on...what? Come on!" But "Gattaca" moves so fast and with such self-assurance that you never have the time to stop and wonder about the numerous plot holes in the plot. I liked "Gattaca," despite its minor flaws, and it's the rare type of film that actually means a lot of things on a lot of different levels. - John Ulmer Webmaster of The Movie Portal http://www.wiredonmovies.com/ Updated daily, offers over one thousand free movie scripts and hundreds of free reviews, plus posters, sounds, quotes, and more. ========== X-RAMR-ID: 36440 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1223867 X-RT-TitleID: 1080254 X-RT-SourceID: 1382 X-RT-AuthorID: 6769 X-RT-RatingText: 4.5/5