- Andrew Niccol's Gattaca portrays a future society that clearly has a big problem. On my most recent rewatching of this subtle, intelligent sci-fi film, it occurred to me that I couldn't identify for certain what the root problem really was. Was it the rampant genetic testing and engineering that have reduced job interviews to urine tests and created genetic prerequisites for dating? Or was it instead the rigid societal conformity reflected by the drably handsome workforce and maze of employee cubicles? Maybe one problem even caused the other? Regardless, people have stopped being interesting, unique, or happy, and it's up to Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke) to change all that.
- Actually, all Vincent wants to do is to get sent up into space on the next rocket to Titan. Problem is, he's a de-gene-erate, meaning he was conceived the old-fashioned way (in the back of a Buick Riviera, if you must know) and has a heart condition. In this society, that means you're barely qualified to become janitor, which is precisely the capacity in which Vincent started working at the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation. These days, however, he's pounding the keys with the rest of the young aspirants, eager to claim his place among the stars. Sure, these days he goes by the name of Jerome and has a strange penchant for vacuuming his keyboard, but he's still the same old Vincent that used to swim with his genetically pre-planned younger brother, right? Actually, maybe none of that matters now that a Gattaca executive's corpse is on the floor and Vincent's is the only DNA that shouldn't be at the crime scene.
- If we take a moment to flashback just as the movie does, it seems that Vincent has been living a lie. He's borrowed the identity of a genetically perfect specimen named Jerome (Jude Law), who dutifully collects refrigerated blood and urine that Vincent can deploy for his job's constant genetic screenings. In exchange, Jerome gets to live comfortably, drink abundantly, and hopefully forget about the car accident that deprived him of the use of his genetically perfect (but useless) legs. At Gattaca, however, Police Detective Hugo (Alan Arkin) immediately picks up Vincent's genetic scent, even as his supervisor (Loren Dean) seems strangely reticent to pursue the lead. Even Vincent's chief competitor and love interest Irene (Uma Thurman) has her suspicions, but none of it adds up for any of them. How could any genetic misfit succeed when the deck is so stacked against them?
- While Gattaca's plot is sufficiently compelling, the film's imagery dominates from its opening shots of magnified hairs that thunder down like falling trees to Titan as a smoke-filled glass to the twelve-fingered pianist. Likewise, the costume and set design incorporate a wonderful mix of sci-fi and retro 1950's elements that effectively adjust the stereotypical Grey Flannel Suit to fit the future, whether it preceded genetic testing or not. With career-best performances by Hawke and Law and excellent support from a varied cast including Gore Vidal, Ernest Borgnine, Tony Shalhoub, and Xander Berkeley, this fascinating futurist neo-noir takes few missteps. Perhaps my only complaint is that Gattaca's clever subtlety doesn't extend to the film's excessively ponderous final fifteen minutes and the nausea-inducing names of characters like Vincent Freeman and Eugene Morrow. Still, modern filmmakers would do well to incorporate some of Gattaca's DNA if they want to create more thoughtful, genre-spanning sci-fi films.
- Andrew Niccol's directorial debut.
- Cameos by Elias Koteas, Maya Rudolph, and Blair Underwood.
- Gattaca is a made-up name consisting of the four DNA nucleotides, but must every name mean something?
