Gattaca

A movie by Andrew Nicol

With Uma Thurman, Ethan Hawke, Jude Law and others

Monika says:

Progress at all cost – the achievements of science don’t always turn out to be a blessing in the long run. It seems so desirable to conceive a child made-to-measure instead of leaving this important issue to chance or Nature. It is a brave new world GATTACA presents us with, a world without hereditary diseases, but also a world where people who don’t fulfill the genetic requirements don’t stand a chance. Just like lepers used to be excluded from society children conceived naturally and without interference are now stamped "invalid".

Vincent (Ethan Hawke) is one of them. Right after he is born he is genetically tested, and his parents learn that he is bound to fail. With their second son they don’t rely on chance and seem to have made the right decision. But Vincent has a dream he is willing to sacrifice everything for: he wants to be an astronaut. Even the fact that only the genetic elite is allowed into this coveted profession can’t stop him. At first he only manages to enter space center Gattaca as a cleaner, but then he has the opportunity to change his fate. He buys a new identity from Jerome (Jude Law) who is paralyzed after an attempted suicide and sets out to live his dream under a new name.

The future as presented in this movie is disturbing. How long until genes will rule the life of a person in a way they have never done before? Companies that pick their employees based on a genetic fingerprint? Not ones abilities are the decisive factor for getting a job but the probability of having cancer later in life or a heart condition? A society with true equality has never existed, but in GATTACA a genetic elite created in a test tube takes the place of the former nobility. A gloomier vision than George Orwell’s "1984", brilliantly done in this unusual film that sticks out among the "fast food" usually served at movie theaters these days. The only loud noises in this movie come from the space shuttle starts Vincent enjoys to watch daily.

A different kind of science fiction movie that will make the popcorn get stuck in your throat. Well worth watching.

Christina says:

In a future not too far away science deciphered the genetic code. Although babies now can be custom-made there are still people who do it the old-fashioned way on the back seat of their car. Of course they are promptly punished with a child who is threatened by all kinds of illnesses and will probably not live beyond the age of 30. A son and heir so flawed can’t possibly bear his father’s name. Better save it for the next try, but this time play it safe.

All his life naturally conceived Vincent (Ethan Hawke) competes with his "improved“ brother Anton (Loren Dean), and of course he can only loose. His status as an "invalid“ ensures that he only sweeps floors at the Gattaca space center, although his dream is to travel in space. His only chance is to burn all bridges and buy a new identity. That is provided by Jerome (Jude Law), a genetically perfect man who is in a wheelchair after an accident.

But just as Vincent’s dream is about to come true and he is chosen for a one-year-mission in space a murder is committed at Gattaca, and the police roams the corridor with giant vacuum cleaners so that Vincent has to fear his exposure.

GATTACA has a fascinating storyline that is close enough to our present day reality to make us squirm in our seats. The genetic class system is too close for comfort. Unfortunately Andrew Niccol realized the movie with sufficient loose threads to knit a sweater. Ethan Hawke and Jude Law as representatives of the dark side of the perfect society are terrific. Their complicated relationship is the highlight of the whole movie, even if it leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. I still ask myself whether Uma Thurman had any function beside the decorative one that I somehow missed. First I thought her character Irene Cassini was a potential astronaut, but later it’s revealed that she is not. So all there is to do for her is to play with her hair and look nice.

I would have prefered a different excuse for the impending exposure of Vincent. The murder story line is rather fabricated. The victim fell from the sky, there were a few unrelated police actions and Hooray! the killer was discovered.

The relationship between Vincent and his brother who added spice to the investigation as the leading detective, too, remained unresolved. A pity after the promising beginning that served so well to show the consequences of genetic manipulations.

The set design suffered from an odd taste. I always believed that mankind had evolved beyond the liking of bulky concrete palaces and saw no reason to revive it in the near future. Judging from the look of the people at Gattaca the gene for individualism and good taste in clothing seems to have been erased as well.

To make clear that discrimination no longer is based on superficial things like the color of your skin there is a black character now or then, but except for Uma Thurman’s character I wasn’t able to spot any women in exposed positions. Are we to conclude that a second X-chromosome is a genetic defect that prevents the bearer from rising to the higher ranks?

In spite of everything mentioned above GATTACA is one of the better movies of the year 1997.

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Christina Gross

Monika Hübner