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
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