Gattaca

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly, "Gattaca" exceeds its potential!
Review: Gattaca's tale of one man's struggle to fit in in a society of genetically-engineered supermen somehow managed to touch my deepest strings and play on my every insecurity, which I find surprising in view of the film's circular ideology. What do I mean? Gattaca is an artful cry against mechanical perfection - it depicts a sterile society that values one's physical attributes over one's very humanity. Creating a child is much like shopping for a computer today: everybody wants the best "specs" - a genius mind and a perfect body are expected and selected for, while the naturally-born people face utmost prejudice. Given this premise, one would expect Gattaca to be a celebration of the unique human qualities - creativity, emotion, etc. Instead, Gattaca takes a completely reverse stance and starts celebrating the very qualities it condemns: the main hero, the "In-Valid" Vincent Freeman (woodenly acted by Ethan Hawke), clandestinely inserts himself into this perfect society almost solely because of his physical merits - his athleticism, his ability to type perfectly (I envy him), even the size of his private member. In several scenes scattered throughout the film Gattaca visually demonstrates Vincent's struggle - in the form of a swimming contest with his engineered brother. As expected, in the end Vincent wins, though precisely how he does this is unclear. Does "Gattaca" pose luck as the redeeming human element? I'd rather expected him to paint a masterpiece.

I already mentioned Ethan Hawke's slightly rigid acting. In a complete reversal, Vincent's partner in crime, Jerome Morrow, a paraplegic "Valid" whose identity Vincent buys, is brilliantly, sulkily acted by Jude Law. He delectably embodies defeated pride and arrogance - oh, how many people I've met that were so like him! On the other hand (Gattaca is a really mixed bag, isn't it?), Vincent's love interest Irene (Uma Thurman) just doesn't capture the reader's attention. Her acting is hardly off, but her part just doesn't seem central to the story's message, and Thurman is unable to make it into anything meaningful.

Sadly, "Gattaca" capitalizes on that tired Hollywood cliche of unattainable love - when the story is already rife with possible central themes. If told as a tale of the uneasy alliance between Vincent and Jerome that slowly grows into a brotherly affection, "Gattaca" would improve greatly.

The almost total absense of special effects does attract attention, but it's hardly a surprise: Gattaca is a story of interpersonal relationships, and as such doesn't require fancy graphical imagery. What's more surprising is that Hollywood actually summoned up the courage to produce such a visually unexciting film.

So, all in all, how did "Gattaca" manage to touch me as deeply as it did? It played on my innermost fear of all - that of being inadequate. That awful childhood feeling of being excluded from the general goings-on. Without this sort of viewer-film chemistry, I would hardly expect anyone to compose a favorable opinion of it.

Rating:
Summary: Masterly marks out the importance of the human soul
Review: Gattaca is a prophetic movie. In the not-too-distant future nothing will be left in the hands of fate. With the help of medical technology parents will be able to choose their baby's characteristics. Will it have brown eyes? Blonde hair? Will it be a girl or a boy? Those are just some of the things a couple will be able to determine. Vincent ( Hawke ) has a dream. The fact that he is brought to this world with the natural way won't stop him from making it true. " There's no gene for the human spirit " says the tagline and that's just what this moving film exactly prooves . Withought relying on expensive digital effects , director Niccols creates a believable future scenery in which his two lead stars display an exceptional screen chemistry ( which is natural if you only consider there was some spark in real life at the same time too ) .Another plus is the majestic soundtrack and let's not forget the great special features this Dvd includes.

Rating:
Summary: It has all the elements for a sci-fi classic.
Review: Gattaca is a great example of how science fiction films should be produced today in Hollywood. With little special effects, an original plot, a beautiful 1950s-like production design, and a wonderful musical score, this film has all the elements for a sci-fi classic. Its original plot is a great message to the audience: it questions humanity and the art of science. Its special features is quite disappointing, only a behind-the-scenes look and a trailer. The region 2 version was released with deleted scenes. Hopefully the studio will release a special edition in the future.

Rating:
Summary: Great Science Fiction!
Review: Great science fiction film! I enjoyed the thoroughly creative storyline. It's an intriguing and unique vision of the future. I've seen the film several times and never been bored. Jude Law gives a wonderfully convincing performance.

Rating:
Summary: Intelligent sci-fi movie!
Review: Appropriately titled, this movie is dramatic, suspenseful, and intensely thought-provoking, for its originality.

Vincent (Ethan Hawke) trades identities with a crippled person (Jude Law) who wants to be "perfect," in the far-off world, where people are genetically engineered to be perfect; no diseases, no ailments, just... just perfect, except for Law.

Vincent falls for a gorgeous woman (future wife Uma Thurman, very sexy as Poison Ivy in "Batman & Robin") and somehow they both get mixed up in a murder investigation, leading to a very thought-provoking and sad ending. This is intelligent, gripping, dramatic... this is what all sci-fi movies should be like, and only a few succeeded, like "Contact." What a pity.

Rated PG-13 for language, violence, sexuality, and some brief nudity.

Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC FILM
Review: Gattaca is my favorite motion picture. It is a movie about a future where people are no longer dicriminated by the color of their skin or what their gender is; instead people are dicrimanated by their genetic make-up. Dicrimination is now a science. There are three main "classes" of people in this twisted future: "valids," the name of the people brought into the world via artifical selection therefore making them nearly perfect, "in-valids," the name of those brought into the world naturally, or what has become unaturally, in this future world and "de-gene-erates," the classification of an in-valid who is assuming the genetic identity of a valid secretly in order to succeed in life. Ethan Hawke plays just such a character and most of the movie is about him making it into, and maintaining his status in the Gattaca complex (a maximum security space center) assuming the genetic identity of a valid named Gerome Murrow (played by Jude Law). The movie makes much more sense when you actually watch it and I advise you do so if you haven't already!

Rating:
Summary: Superior, thought-provoking sci-fi thriller
Review: Andrew Niccol, who wrote the screenplay for The Truman Show (1998), directs this superior sci-fi from his own script. The result is a well-plotted, character-driven science fiction thriller for intelligent viewers, a pleasing combination of worthiness not always associated with the genre. This is science fiction that will play with mainstream audiences as well as with afficionados. From Michael Nyman's beautiful and complementary musical score to the clever opening credits in which the letter codes, "g, a, t, c" (for the chemical bases of DNA--thus the movie's title) shimmer and glow in the names of those credited, everything in the movie is professionally done. There is little violence and virtually no sex. I would say this is a perfect flick for the kids except for the embedded "ads" for cigarettes and booze that mar some of the early scenes.

Ethan Hawke stars as the genetically-challenged Vincent Freeman, an "In-Valid" conceived in the back seat of a Buick Riviera instead of through the fine art of the genetic engineers who now dominate society. His dream is to go into space, but his genes, in this meritocracy based on genetic endowment, fit him only for cleaning the bathrooms. Yet he has a monstrous drive to succeed, and when he strikes a deal with the genetically superior Jerome Morrow, a "valid" who is in a wheel chair with paralyzed legs, to use his identity, body fluids, hair samples and urine to fool the genetic screening devices of the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation, he is ready to fulfill his dream.

Uma Thurman plays his love interest. Her statuesque beauty and her exotic features are perfect for the part of a futuristic babe in a retro fifties landscape of gray flanneled over achievers. (Actually they aren't gray in dress, but in their uniform adherence to the corporate mentality.) Jude Law as Jerome, the wheel-chair bound "Valid," is perhaps the star performer, bringing subtlety and a bitter, but somehow uplifting verisimilitude to the role. A puffed up Gore Vidal (who incidentally once wrote, "after forty the death watch") is Director Josef, and Alan Arkin is a street wise homicide investigator from another era.

The interesting question asked by this movie is, could a caste system based on genetic endowment be our future? My vision of the future is that of a "brown society" in which everyone strives to be the same, but in which small subtle differences of appearance are increasingly appreciated. If every movie star looked like, say Jennifer Lopez, however beautiful she is, I would nonetheless find particular delight in a Penélope Cruz or an occasional Reese Witherspoon. This sort of pressure would keep some variety in the gene pool. I also think that a society in which the genetic endowment of its members is too widely separated can only lead to class hatreds resulting in violent conflict and ultimately genocide, most likely by fiat, so that the survivors will be genetically rather similar. Possibly humanoid types will be genetically engineered to do the baser work of society. These creatures may be thought of as organic robots, not as bonafide members of society, thereby raising another question, what is it to be human? A society greatly stratified in terms of wealth can exist, as the present society shows, but a society in which the difference between haves and the have-nots is too great is not stable and eventually leads to revolution (there being a limit to the number of people that can be put in prison). Furthermore, as this movie suggests, just which qualities of character, appearance and/or ability are the most valuable? And when such qualities become abundant, might we then have a need for other qualities now made scarce? Finally, as is asked of the notion of I.Q: "intelligence for what?" Is it more powerful in an evolutionary sense to be "intelligent" or to be healthy? Is it more adaptive to have a powerful drive to succeed, or a powerful urge to procreate? Tough questions that the very talented Andrew Niccol might consider when making his next movie.

Rating:
Summary: A Rarity - An Intelligent Science Fiction Film!
Review: Set in the not-too-distant future, "Gattaca" stars Ethan Hawke as a young man named Vincent who was born to parents who turned down the option for genetic engineering. As a result, Vincent is born with poor vision and suffers from many illnesses in his youth. Vincent and others like him who were born without genetic tampering are labelled "in-valid," making them ineligible for many opportunities in life such as the space program. Desperate to become a part of space exploration, Vincent finds a sure way into the program after being introduced to the young man Jerome (wonderfully played by Jude Law), who, while not an "in-valid," is confined to a wheelchair due to an accident.

The whole plot of the film centers on this question: Will Vincent be able to rise through the program and make it into space before his real identity as an "in-valid" is discovered? The film is a visual masterpiece. You almost get the feeling that you're looking inside the mind of one of the writers from science fiction's Golden Age. The settings remind me of Orwell's "1984" or Kafka's "The Trial." You get the sense that you really are in the future, that none of this could exist in the present. When it comes down to it, the film really uses few special effects. The ones that are present are not useless eye-candy that most science-fiction films today feature. The effects are only a backdrop for the story. (Hear that, Hollywood? The STORY is what's important! Sorry...I feel better now!) The story has several interesting subplots: Vincent's relationships with Jerome, with his brother, and with a young girl at work played by Uma Thurman. The murder of the director of the space program and the investigation that follows also brings in an added dimension.

The whole point of the film, stated in very simple terms: You can live out your dreams even if everything is stacked against you. To be honest, at first I was bothered that Vincent began to live out his dreams by cheating, but I realized that the conditions set up by the government also cheated. To deny a person access to any goal or dream based on race, religion, genetics, or any other factor is a cheat from the start. Vincent was smart enough to figure out a way to realize his dream. And thankfully someone was smart enough to allow this picture to be made. You leave the film with a lot to think about. If science continues to progress at the current astonishing rate, we will be faced with some of the questions raised in "Gattaca" very soon. Any film that causes you to think (a rarity these days) is well worth your time.

Rating:
Summary: One of the finest sci-fi movies I've ever seen
Review: I don't know why I waited so long to see Gattaca, the blurb on the box just didn't reach out and grab me, but after seeing Dark City, I decided to take a chance on this movie too, and I'm glad I did. Gattaca is like the thinking man's sci-fi, some of the possible mixed with some of the improbable, but wrapped up in such a way that you find yourself just accepting it, because you're drawn along on the story, and you don't really want to quibble over all the details.

Ethan Hawke plays an in-valid(a natural born), who desires to go to space, but never will because he wasn't born a valid, one whose genes have been altered so that he will be perfect. This setback doesn't stop him though, and through the help of a valid, portrayed by Jude Law, who was paralzyed by a car accident, he sets out to fool the top of the elite at the space company Gattaca, into thinking he is one of them. The premise is an unusual one, but it works, because we are able to believe in the ability of Hawke to carry this masquerade off.

Most of all the actors do a fine job here, I was impressed by Ethan Hawke's portrayal of the main character. Jude Law, an actor I usually don't care for, also does an impressive job as the valid who doesn't really believe Hawke can carry this off, since he himself, a genetically altered man slated to win the gold medal in swimming at the olympics, could only win the silver. It wouldn't be fair to mention the two men without also mentioning Uma Thurman, an actress I generally don't care for either, but who does a very good job in this movie.

While I followed the flow of most of the movie, and could see the possibility of gene altering becoming feasible in the near future, the biggest problem I had with the movie was the investigation that took place after the murder take place in Gattaca. The police seemed to be able to do whatever they wanted, stop anyone anywhere, and test their DNA. It was never stated that in addition to science progressing so far that citizens had also lost some of their basic rights, and that the authorities were allowed to go anywhere they wanted and test anyone they felt like. This seemed like the only real weak link in the story to me, but I let it slide since I was enjoying the overall aspect of the movie.

So, at the very least I recommend that you rent this movie, and see for yourself how good it is. I ended up buying it after I saw it, and if you're anything like me, I think you'll do the same.

Rating:
Summary: thought provoking...
Review: good science fiction, usually is - but off late science fiction movies have tended to focus on special effects and other CGI sizzle. other than a pre-occupation with armani clothing, this one really focusses on some meaty topics.

the central one - how much does society's expectation of success actually influence (either positively or negatively) the actual achievement of success - is an interesting one in the is world of assessment and categorization that we live in. or in simpler words - what makes folks succeed - good genes or internal drive?

the film definitely has a point of view and gently pushes it's premise. i, and friends of mine who had watched the film, found ourselves rethinking a few assumptions. not a bad result for a hollywood film.

and if all that is too much heaviness for you, don't worry. ethan hake, uma thurman and jude law in all that armani certainly make nice eye candy.