Gattaca

Rating:
Summary: A smart movie with a startlingly relevant vision
Review: This is the movie that everyone overlooked. I have heard people call it a thriller that is too slow, a mystery that is too unimportant, and a feel-good movie that doesn't make you feel good. It is not any of these; it is a transport to a world where your whole life is determined from the time of your birth, and it is the story of a man with too much ambition to accept his fate. I would rank it highly among the best movies of all time.

Gattaca is set in a near-future where doctors screen embryos for genetic 'defects' during in-vitro fertilization. Nobody has children the natural way anymore, because why would you risk having a child with high potential for heart disease? Designer babies can be promised a life of perfect health, perfect vision, and unlimited potential. And such children would obviously grow into better workers, athletes, and lifemates. Genetic discrimination might be illegal, but everybody does it. A handshake, a fallen hair, any mark that your body leaves behind can be used to measure just how perfect or imperfect you are.

Enter one Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke). He is a love child, a "faith birth", an In-Valid with bad genes, nearsightedness, and a potential (but unconfirmed) heart defect. He dreams of the stars, and of exploring them himself one day. But Gattaca - the future's equivelent to NASA - only employs the best of the best, the cream of the crop... the genetically perfect. Denied his dream, Vincent joins the underground ranks of the "de-gene-rates", "borrowed ladders", people who refuse to play the genetic hand that they were dealt. He purchases the identity of the recently-crippled Jerome 'Eugene' Morrow (Jude Law), and he meticulously replaces his every fallen hair and drop of blood with samples from Eugene.

And it works. Armed with Eugene's biology, Vincent-as-Jerome has the drive, discipline, and ability to live his dream. As the movie opens, he is one of Gattaca's most promising candidates, getting ready for his first mission into space. But one inattentive moment, caught by an ill-timed murder investigation, threatens to unravel everything Vincent has worked for.

Gattaca is several things rolled into a larger picture. There is a thriller aspect: will Vincent evade detection or will he be unmasked and have his dreams shattered? There is a love story: does the woman he is involed with care about him, or his genes? There is a background mystery: who is responsible for the murder of the mission director? But none of these are the central theme, which is this: how far can the human spirit go in pursuit of a dream?

The movie asks and tries to answer that question in flawless manner. The clean-cut, sanitized designs of the future evoke a vaguely impersonal setting. The pacing of the movie is slow, but steady - every moment is played perfectly. Ethan Hawke delivers a fantastic performance as Vincent, but it is Jude Law who really shines as his opposite - a man with everything but ambition, someone who felt entitled to the world and is now too angry and embittered to help himself.

Andrew Niccol's screenplay is simply brilliant, and full of detail, right down to the words and phrases - degenerates, borrowed ladders, 'Eugene' and eugenics, Gattaca and the G/C/A/T codes that make up DNA. There is far too much depth in this movie to convey in any review. I have watched it a half-dozen times, and there is always a nuance or subtle take that I missed before, and which changes the way I think of it.

Ultimately, Gattaca is a movie with a strong belief in the human spirit. It is not just clever, it is smart - its joy isn't in its twists and turns, but in its message. It is a parable about the importance of dreams in a world captivated by genetic science. And I think that anyone who lives in todays world, with the near-future looming so close overhead, should be able to appreciate it.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: Wonderful sci-fi story that doesn't depend on special effects and gizmos to entertain.

The characters are fantastic, the story is fantastic, and it keeps you guessing all the way through.

Very enjoyable. Story-telling at its best.

Rating:
Summary: One of the finest sci-fi movies ever made
Review: Gattaca is by far one of the best sci-fi movies I have ever seen. It's about a man named Vincent who overcomes a prejudicial system impossed upon him through sheer self determination, who doesn't accept anything less than the full attainment of his dream. The story line was both inspiring and thought-provoking, the acting was great (especially Hawke and Law), and the production design and art direction were totally stunning. There are little special effects, which sets this movie apart from other sci-fi movies. Gattaca is simply a beautiful unique work of art filled with emotion, intelligence, beauty, and suspense. Definitely a must see for anyone.

Rating:
Summary: "In my beginning is my end." ("Four Quartets" - T.S. Eliot)
Review: Andrew Niccols' "Gattaca" takes place in a "not so distant future," but like all serious science fiction works, it is a commentary about the present. In its stylishly sequenced narrative, reminiscent of a honey-washed and glowing photo spread in an old issue of Life magazine, or the best of a high-end merchandizing catalog, it is also a passionate tribute to the romantic notion that the human spirit is, and always will be, beyond the icy grip of science.

The film tells the story of the allegorically named Vincent Freeman(Ethan Hawke) who sets out to follow his dream of space travel, even though he was born the "old-fashioned" way, which renders him genetically flawed. As such, he is forced to work in low-level occupations, the fate of all "In-Valids," who represent the untouchables of that not-so-distant-future in which genetic engineering has replaced the divisive powers formerly held only by wealth alone. Vincent, resourceful because of his spirit -- for which there is no gene, as the movie's tagline suggests -- finds a way to make his dreams a reality, though not without the help of a disabled "Valid" (Jude Law). The "Valid," Jerome, who lends Vincent his identity, as well as regular samples of his blood, urine, and other genetic identifiers used in monitoring society's privileged caste, while in possession of superior genes, lacks the one thing that transforms dreams into reality: the spirit of ambition -- or the desire to conquer the universe.

Ironically, it may have been that very same romantic ambition of the human spirit, which drives Vincent towards the stars, that brought the deadening "perfection" of the tightly controlled world of "Gattaca" into being in the first place -- but that's more of a comment on the nature of romanticism, rather than on this movie. I bring this up mostly because of the Wagnerian tones in the soundtrack, which was composed and arranged by Michael Nyman. The relentless striving apparent in the themes of the music gives the movie another critical dimension in which to build its vision of the triumphs of the human spirit over the soulless rigors of science.

The acting in this movie is superb, not in least because of the stress on the ensemble of actors over individual performances as such. There is a great deal of power in the subtly restrained acting styles of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman in their respective roles. Having said that, it seems to me that Jude Law's performance as the "Valid" Jerome, who has everything but that one important passion to hold it all together, stands out because of his understanding that this character is perhaps more interesting than the genetically flawed Vincent, who has but a single all-consuming -- and therefore, limiting -- ambition. Jude Law's performance in this movies foreshadows his performance in Spielberg's A.I.

Rating:
Summary: Liked it although its message was scary
Review: I think we are heading in this direction w/ genectic structure. Jude definately knows how to act and I love him and ethan in this esp the line "Keep your eyelashes where they belong" or something like that

Rating:
Summary: Jack of all trades, master of none
Review: Granted, Gattaca certainly tries to be all things to all people - it sells itself variously as a Philip K. Dick-esque sci-fi, as a Tense Political Thriller, an Edgy Romance, even as a Rumination on Filial Love and Obligation - but in my book it fails badly on every count. I am clearly in the minority on this, so I had better explain.

From the opening sequence, something is clearly amiss: I mean, extreme close-ups of exfoliated skin and toenail clippings, anyone?

Thereafter, things do not improve.

First off, the sci-fi premise is flimsy (it's a rap on the genetically programmed to be perfect humans vs. "human" humans debate: where "human" humans have become "invalid" citizens, electronically tagged and shut out mainstream society of perfectly engineered "valid" humans. But, you would think, if there is sufficient technology to eradicate human flaws at conception, then surely someone must clever enough to fix them later in life too, no?).

The special effects team (who, in fairness, didn't have much to do other than the aforementioned toenail clipping close-ups and the odd distant rocket launch) seem to have missed the last 35 years in development of special effects.

The brother vs. brother thread is schmaltz (the whole relationship can be summed up, apparently, by who was the better swimmer when they were boys), ... Good grief.

What else... oh yes, the lack of chemistry between Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke beggars belief (Thurman looks continually as if the very sight of Hawke gives her the screaming heebie jeebies), and the thriller/whodunnit piece does not import a sense of drama into the proceedings. And boy does the film need it.

The only saving grace is Jude Law, who seems to make his living these days propping up dreadful films with solid performances (see A.I. and The Road To Perdition in this regard), and who at the critical moment in the film, performs a very deft ascent of a spiral staircase without using his legs.

That is to be commended, however bad the rest of the experience.

Olly Buxton

Rating:
Summary: A Poignant Dystopian Film
Review: I had heard good things about Gattaca but I finally rented it only after I had exhausted all other possibilities. I shudder to think of all the flacid films I sat through when I could have been watching this excellent movie. The cast is impressive, the story is engaging, and the music, photography and settings combine to produce an atmosphere that makes this a beautifully-crafted, visual yet cerebral film.

Dealing as it does with eugenics, "Gattca" attempts to reach you at the cellular, nay, molecular level. Not to put too fine a point on it, writer/director Andrew Niccol(The Truman Show) infuses the film with metaphors of reproduction and genetics, not the least of which being the title itself (refering to a fictitious government space program, "Gattaca" is nevertheless unmistakeable as an acronym for a sequence of DNA bases: guanine, adenine, thymine, cytosine). There is a particularly poignant scene in which a double helix, in the guise of a spiral staircase, presents an imposing obstacle, and at various times individuals themselves become metaphors for spermatocytes (in swim races and while rushing off in a space ship to Saturn's largest moon, Titan, itself a metaphor for an oocyte).

As intelligent as it is though, the film is an artistic exposition of themes, not a scholarly dissertation on a very complex set of issues. It would be unfair therefore to complain that the film doesn't do justice to the weighty issues it presents.

The score by Michael Nyman (The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover, The Piano) provides an aural texture that compliments the visuals in a remarkable way, rather like a down-to-earth "Blade Runner." In fact, I would describe the film as part Philip K. Dick, part Aldous Huxley as in "Blade Runner cum Brave New World." One of the best and most timely dystopian films out there.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating issue, weak and bleak execution
Review: Discrimination, nature-vs.-nuture, potential, drive... all fascinating issues, and all touched upon by Gattaca.

But when paired with a 'stylishly soulless' execution, the issues become as dull and lifeless as the characters that portray them.

In the film, love fizzles rather than sizzles. Passion seems hardly passionate. The main character has drive, but it's one more exposited than shone.

All of this together makes one think "hmm" rather than "wow!" While this may be a "thinking man's movie" it succeeds only in suggesting broad themes to contemplate rather than coloring, twisting, accentuating, and tweaking aspects of the themes to get us to take the next step.

And on a more superficial but no less frustrating level, I found it questionable that a firm like Gattaca would require DNA testing -- whether for identity or drug-free status verification -- on such a frequent basis. With entrance into the facility already tightly controlled, what threat (post-murder environment aside) was so imminent that justified such a thwart in daily productivity?

SPOILER!!!

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And lastly, with regards to the murder... surely, some of the murderer's stature and access could have employed a much less blunt method of killing, no? Poisoning, sniper rifle (via hitman), etc... all would have resulted in less risk of ultimate detection.

In a nutshell, then, Gattaca -- despite its noble trajectory -- is brought down by implausibility and a failure to examine critical issues raised in a more bold and deep manner.

Rating:
Summary: I may trade mine for non-superbit
Review: Great movie, but if I had to do it over again I'd skip the superbit edition.
My eyes aren't sophisticated enough to see much difference in quality between regular DVD and superbit. Yet the superbit takes up so much space on the disk there's no room left for those 'extras' we all love, like commentaries etc. It's just the film.
This, by the way, is what I call a "real" science fiction film; that is, it has a plausible plotline based on real science, rather than "space opera" like Star Wars or pop schlock like "ET" and "Close Encounters."

Rating:
Summary: Modern sci-fi with a retro feel
Review: I love the look and feel of this movie, it's so '50s and immaculate - the wardrobe, the buildings the whole feel is nostalgic with a twist. The plot is totally modern though - what would happen if genetic engineering of humans became de rigueur for all those that could afford it. The film plays out the absurdity and the horror that this way of life would lead to. It is a pretty cold film, lots of polished metal and cool emotions. Some of the characters actions and motives are a little bit questionable at times, but for me, this film scores high on originality and its ability to provoke the question "What if....?"