GATTACA (1997) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1998 Ted Prigge
Writer/Director: Andrew M. Niccol Starring: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law, Loren Dean, Alan Arkin, Gore Vidal, Ernest Borgnine, Tony Shalhoub, Xander Berkeley, Blair Underwood, Ryan Dorin, Elias Kosteas, Jayne Brook
If you had a chance to create a genetically perfect child, would you do it? "Gattaca" is a film which presents a future where society has answered "yes" to this question, but then ponders if this was actually the right decision. "Gattaca" came out only a couple months following the first genetically engineered creature, the lovable Dolly the Sheep, and with this in mind, the film only becomes more frightening. The way the realm of genetics is heading, it may only take a couple decades until the future "Gattaca" presents becomes true.
Contrary to the misleading trailers, "Gattaca" is not a sci-fi thriller, in the way that there's lots of murder, Hitchcockian suspense, and chase scenes. This is a quiet, sad film about intelligent theories. In fact, the film seems like it would have been written by George Orwell or Aldous Huxley (the latter who's novel "Brave New World" featured genetically engineered children). It's a film that may likely become a cult hit to people who are frightened by a promise of shallow Utopia, which is exactly what "Gattaca" presents...and the main reason I dug it so much.
The story revolves around the genetically insufficient Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke), a man with high hopes but a 90% chance of heart problems, and a prospected life span of around 30 years. As a child, he was put down because of the threats of genetics, while his younger genetically perfect brother, Anton (Loren Dean), was promised whatever his heart desired. Vincent yearns to be an astronaut, but when he gets a job at a giant space company, it's as a janitor (Ernest Borgnine plays his boss!).
But one day, he finds out that it's probably possible that his desires can come true in the form of a business deal brought out by a black market geneticist (or something), German ("Wings"' Tony Shalhoub, who did like hundreds of cameos in films back in '97: "Men in Black," "A Life Less Ordinary"...), who's client is a genetically perfect man, Jerome Morrow (Jude Law), who has unfortunately been crippled. Fortunately, though, there's no record of the accident, and he's willing to give someone else his life. Since Vincent looks a bit like him...
After a couple alterations (some minor, some really major), he has donned the life of Jerome, and is doing his job. There, he meets a genetically imperfect woman, Irene (Uma Thurman, who's genetically perfect in real life anyway, hee hee), and the two begin a kind of relationship, albeit a very shallow one since romance is deemed by how great a man's stats are.
However, a murder of a high-level worker at his office is killed, and one of Vincent/Jerome's eyelashes is found by the anal retentive investigators headed by a semi-wily inspector, Hugo, (Alan Arkin), and none other than Vincent's long lost brother, Anton, who hasn't seen him since they were teenagers. We know Vincent/Jerome didn't do it, but with his older picture being posted everywhere, not only Vincent/Jerome's in trouble, but also the real Jerome, who's as much in it as he is.
However, there isn't many big suspense set pieces, which is actually a blessing because if they were tossed in, the film would lose it's message and descend into just being a sci-fi thriller a la William Gibson. The suspense in the film comes from the idea that Vincent and Jerome can easily be captured just by dropping a hair or dead skin. While there are several scenes which are pretty frightening, there are no big distractions from the point of the film, much to the dismay of commercial audiences.
What is actually portrayed is the lack of life in the Utopian society that is created. Irene has no real spunk in her life, and is rather amazed by the sheer beauty of a sunrise rather than genetically perfect people. And the genetically flawless Jerome is in actuality a bitter man, claiming that his accident was really no accident. What Jerome has done is fool the system in giving a man who yearns for better things a chance at that, and the ending is shocking as it's a definite work of dystopian propaganda, but doesn't have the down ending of other works of this kind.
The production design of this film is probably the best I've seen this year: it's stunning, very pleasing to the eye, but still very cold. Since genetics has ruled out any chance of improvement, the world has cooled into a state of inhumanity, and the sets echo a sense of shallow misery. And the sequence of all the high-level workers doing their jobs has a kind of Gilliam-esque feel to it, showing the nightmare of slipping into a routine zombie-like life. The ability to perfect people has left humanity cold and generally unhappy.
The acting from everyone is great, with Thurman giving a wonderfully cold performance, and Hawke creating a character who has been beaten down by the system but has found a new sense of optimism by a bitter man who was willing to give it out anyway (interesting pointless fact: Uma and Ethan started dating after this film, and currently she is pregnant with his child). But the best performance belongs to Jude Law, who steals every scene he's in, and creates a character filled with the pessimism over having such a horrible burden placed on his burden.
I think that people are generally tempted by the fact that genetics can actually create perfection in a child, but whether or not they would actually act on this temptation is something I'm not sure of. "Gattaca" warns us not to go any farther, chiefly because we'll create a world of elitism where the elite are shallow and unhappy, and as bitter and angry as the lesser people are. And when I see a possible future featuring a 12-fingered piano player, well folks, that just creeps me out.
MY RATING (out of 4): ***1/2
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