director/screenwriter
Andrew Niccol
producers
Danny DeVito
Michael Shamberg
Stacey Sher
cinematographer
Slawomir Idziak
music
Michael Nyman
editor
Lisa Zeno Churgin
cast
Ethan Hawke (Vincent Freeman)
Uma Thurman (Irene Cassini)
Jude Law (Jerome Eugene Morrow)
Gore Vidal (Director Josef)
Xander Berkeley (Dr. Lamar)
Jayne Brook (Marie Freeman)
Elias Koteas (Antonio Freeman)
Blair Underwood (Geneticist)
Mason Gamble (Younger Vincent)
Ernest Borgnine (Caesar)
Tony Shalhoub (German)
Alan Arkin (Detective Hugo)
Loren Dean (Anton)
mpaa rating: PG-13
running
time: 101m
u.s.
release: 10/24/97
video
availability: VHS -
DVD
official site
other andrew
niccol films
reviewed on this website:
- lord
of war
- S1M0NE
|
Under
the opening credits of Gattaca, huge, mysterious objects
fall to the ground and land with oppressive, Dolbyized thuds
and clatters. Elephant tusks? Downed power lines? Volcanic ash?
No, they are fingernails, eyelashes, and dead skin, respectively
-- telltale carriers of our genetic codes. Part of the magic
of Gattaca, the best (and best-looking) science-fiction
film since Brazil, is the way it focuses our attention
on the detritus we shed everywhere. Our bodily wastes, ourselves?
You better believe it. In the world of Gattaca, God isn't
in the details -- our DNA is. Biology is truly destiny.
Gattaca is set in "the not-too-distant future,"
when perfect humans ("valids") are bred by computer
and trained for elite jobs, while "Godchildren" --
people born the old-fashioned, imperfect way -- are doomed to
marginal lives as cogs in the machine. Of course, pessimists
will say that the future of Gattaca is already here --
that we are entering a techno-fascist era full of self-righteousness
and empty of compassion. This is what dystopian fiction has always
pointed out in the guise of sci-fi, but Gattaca chillingly
captures the quick-fix, intolerant mood of the no-sex-no-drugs-no-nothing
'90s, and where it might logically lead.
New Zealand commercial director Andrew Niccol, making a superbly
assured feature debut, wraps his message in a paranoid neo-noir
plot. The hero, Vincent (Ethan Hawke), is a Godchild with a heart
condition and an "expiration date" of about 30 years.
He dreams of being an astronaut, but the prestigious Gattaca
space corporation will hire him only as a janitor. Vincent resigns
himself to sweeping up the dead skin of "valids" until
he meets a genetic black-marketeer (Tony Shalhoub), who sets
up a deal between Vincent and a disabled "valid," Jerome
(Jude Law). Vincent will pose as Jerome, using Jerome's blood,
hair, skin, and even urine to fake out Gattaca's hypersensitive
genetic screening and win a seat on the next space shot.
The weird physical details of Vincent's fakery alone would make
Gattaca fascinating. But Niccol ups the ante when a Gattaca
bigwig turns up dead -- and a stray eyelash of Vincent's is found
at the crime scene. Will Vincent be caught (even if he's innocent
of the murder), or will he sustain his ruse? The real paranoia
of Gattaca is in its theme: the destiny of biology can
be avoided for a while, but eventually it catches up with you
(you can't get much more noir than that).
Most sci-fi movies look great because of cutting-edge special
effects and lavish sets. Gattaca has few special effects,
and its sets are struck from the stark, antiseptic mold of David
Cronenberg movies. Yet the movie is at least as stunning as Blade
Runner or Brazil. Cinematographer Slawomir Idziak
(who shot a few Krzysztof Kieslowski films, including Blue)
is a sorcerer conjuring with golden browns and muted violets;
this is one of the most beautifully photographed movies of the
decade. Uma Thurman, as Vincent's lover Irene, has never been
more radiant -- I wished there were more women in the movie to
enjoy Idziak's lavish lighting.
Gattaca is a "soft" science-fiction film --
i.e., it depends less on hardware than on character and ideas.
It may not be a hit -- the Saturday-night, opening-weekend show
I attended was considerably less than packed -- but it's ideal
for cult-movie reappraisal in a few years (just as Blade Runner
and Brazil flopped and went on to become classics -- and
those films, like Gattaca, got a largely ho-hum response
from American critics). As the movie winds down, so do its momentum
and logic, but I didn't honestly care. Gattaca is the
most elegant and hypnotic sci-fi thriller in years -- a vision
as dazzling as it is bleak. |
