Gattaca

A while ago, I was on Reddit and someone posted a little blurb talking about the movie Gattaca. They said it was an incredibly underrated movie and deserved some more attention. To top it all off, the movie was on Netflix.

The other things that interested me about the movie was that it starred three actors you don't see in too many movies these days. At least not that often. I can't remember the last really well known Ethan Hawke movie or Jude Law movie that wasn't Sherlock Holmes.

In short, its good to see these two guys who just happen to be pretty good actors in something very different.

Gattaca starts off in a not too distant future where people can be genetically engineered to be the best of the best. It comes to the point where people who are genetically engineered are considered valid and those who are naturally born or leave their genetics up to chance are considered invalid.

So begins the story of Vincent Freeman (played by Ethan Hawke) from his birth. His parents had a natural birth with no genetic engineering and so Vincent was born with several disadvantages, one of them being a heart disorder. His parents have a second child who they do genetically engineer. The first 15 to half hour of the movie is really just showing the childhood of Vincent, from the disapproval of his father, to the rivalry between him and his brother that he never could really ever win in.

But Vincent's overarching passion is space travel. Even though from the beginning everyone tells him that he'll never be able to fulfill that goal, he always strives towards it. It really reminded me of the movie October Sky. There's something interesting about a boy with a passion for space travel which is just charming in Hollywood, at least it was in the late 90s.

Well Vincent gets sick of being prevented from attaining his goal that he goes through the black market and buys the identity of a valid. This particular valid happens to be a man by the name of Jerome Morrow (played by Jude Law). He's a navigator in the Gattaca space program who lost the use of his legs. Through a series of procedures, Vincent is able to take on Jerome's identity, beating the tests they implement to keep the quality of the workers high and making sure there aren't any invalids in the program. Vincent seems to have everything going for him making his way to the top of the program and shoed in for the next mission to Saturn's moon Titan. However, the director of the Gattaca program is murdered and an eyelash of Vincent's is found at the scene.

Its not totally clear on whether or no Vincent killed the director but two detective are snooping around the Gattaca program to see who killed the director and looking for his invalid identity. However, there's a part where Jude Law states, you won't get caught because when they look at you they don't see you anymore, they see me.

And its kind of interesting because at a quick glance you do see the resemblance but if you do focus on the two, you can see the differences. But it really begins to show the effect the eugenics have created in this society, that looks and the ability out weight the reality. People see what they want to see, and in Vincent Freeman, they see Jerome Morrow.

Ethan Hawke does a good job at providing a great transformation of a rather homely looking guy into what is considered valid in this society.

The part that I thought was the most interesting and yet at the same time not totally executed properly was the relationship between Vincent and his brother. In the beginning of the film, he states that his brother was the favorite as he was genetically engineered and was a child worthy of his father's name.

There's a great dynamic between the two and with the symbolic game of chicken where they swim out as far as they can into the ocean and see who chickens out first, it provides for a great set up for Vincent's rise out of the hand genetics dealt for him.

However, this relationship, though great in the first fifteen minutes of the film, gets shoe horned in again later when its revealed that the detective hunting Vincent is partnered with his brother.

Now I don't know if I was suppose to know that that was his brother, but I didn't know until later in the movie. That should have been more clear. They do one last game of chicken and while I get what they were trying to do, I didn't really understand why they brought the brother back in.

And then there's Uma Thurman.

I'll give Uma credit, she's not horrible in this film. Its a shame because this came out the same exact year Batman and Robin came out... everybody unfortunately saw that performance instead of this one. While she was silly and just down right stupid in that one, this one she returns to that iconic blank stare she's very good at.

Uma really didn't have to be in the film. They wanted to put in a romance and while it does a little bit for Vincent's character, Uma's dumb in this movie.

Every time there's a slight sign that Vincent may be lying to her about his identity, she doesn't care one bit. He beats up a detective looking for an invalid involved with the murder of the director, she has sex with him. She figures out he's not actually Jerome Morrow, she's made for a very short time... then has sex with him again.

Was she bad? No. Was she good? ... no, no she was not. I'm sorry Uma. Blank stares don't really sell your acting ability to me.

Overall, I understand why this has an underground support, and I understand why I heard about it from somebody on Reddit. The movie is very smart and its got its own style that I understand why most audiences wouldn't really enjoy it or be interested.

Its a thought provoking science fiction movie with some interesting characters and a really great inspiring story that you don't see too often. Its great seeing Vincent really persevere through the trials of being an invalid and in the end, the short you can take from this is, eugenics suck... don't do it.

While its not my favorite science fiction movie, its got an interesting style and themes not really used that often. Its an original idea and should be at least checked out. Stream it off Netflix and give it a shot.

Have you seen Gattaca? Shoot me a comment and discuss below whether or not you liked it or not.

I'll leave you with this. Every once in a while, you find a perfect video that is perfectly set with the type of movie you're reviewing. This is one of those times. Enjoy!