Gattaca
with Ethan Hawke, Uma Therman, Jude Law, Alan Arkin, Loren Dean, Gore Vidal
Written & Directed by Andrew Niccol
by Jason Carr
Even George Orwell and Herman Hesse would stand up to applaud this independent film masterpiece of what the “Right Stuff” of future space shots would be, and it’s a far cry from being spun around in a chair at 8 g’s, or being able to walk underwater and not puke in your space suit. First-time writer/director Andrew Niccol of New Zealand paints a fresco where cloning and genetically-perfect tomatoes are taking us, a world where you can have your children made to order.
Vincent (Ethan Hawke) is a “God Child,” one of the rapidly shrinking members of society who happened to be conceived the old fashioned way; spin the wheel and see what you’ve won, Chuck. Within 30 seconds of his life, it is determined he has bad eyesight, heart problems, and is expected to live only 30 years. He is labeled an “In-Valid” and sentenced to being runner-up to his “Valid” younger brother, destined to clean toilets and empty garbage bins at the Gattaca Space Center for the rest of his life. Welcome to modern genetic medicine.
Vincent, however, has other plans. He makes a deal with a black market DNA broker to become Jerome (Jude Law), a man who has the DNA to go to Pluto, but because of his broken back, is confined to a chair. Jerome provides the necessary bodily fluids and samples to make the new identity possible for Vincent (now Jerome), and Vincent keeps Jerome in the luxurious lifestyle he is accustomed to.
Vincent disappears from society, presumed dead, and the new Jerome begins his career as a mission programmer at Gattaca. From here, the suspense kicks in full-force. Vincent has to successfully avoid being discovered by weaving an illusion of blood, urine, and skin samples to fool the machines and testers around him. Everything is going as planned until the Mission Director turns up dead and Gattaca becomes a crime scene where even a stray eyelash could put Vincent into solitary for life.
Enter the possible love interest, Irene, played by sophisticated and beautiful Uma Thurman, who was passed over for a mission because of faulty DNA (she is also a God Child). Will Vincent’s interest in Irene destroy him, or will the police examiners catch him first? The remainder of the movie keeps your ass twitching with suspense, and more than a few unexpected plot twists flesh out the lead trio’s relationship as well as their sense of individuality in a sea of perfect automatons.
This movie strives to make us question where we are going as a society, and it is as successful as Orwell was with 1984. The characters are sharp, intelligent, and more importantly, realistic and believable. Throw in the clinically-perfect sets defining the world of Gattaca and you have, what I consider, the most moving science-fiction film of the last five years. It makes you think. If the possibility presented itself, would you have your child genetically engineered to be everything you ever wanted?
