Gattaca

Gattica: Brotherly Love

A very interesting premise bogged down in a rather bland story about brotherly love, finding the girl of your dreams, which terminates in an unsatisfying “whodunit”. GATTICA wants to be a serious science fiction film in that it relies heavily on the science, as the fiction is a fanciful extrapolation of current facts.

I think the future of genetic manipulation to the degree that Director Andrew Niccols envisions is very likely but the story is not believable. If I am led to believe that Vincent undergoes an extremely difficult operation in Jerome’s apartment then medical science should be able to regenerate his (Jerome’s) spinal cord nerve cells. Also, Vincent tries to minimize his DNA exposure while assuming the false identity but that’s just utter crap: not only would his DNA be everywhere but there is no DNA in hair or eyelashes…and why would they take a urine sample? 

I suppose if you’re genetically perfect then you have to wear a dark suit and walk emotionless with your hands behind your back; these characterizations were absurd. The murder of the Director was not only an idiotic diversion but also only served the purpose of introducing Vincent’s long lost brother. Jude Law’s character Jerome was poorly scripted and his motivations made little sense: I suppose that disabled people are of absolutely no value in this future society…even one as smart as Jerome. I guess he couldn’t have used his superior mind to further science, write novels, or sculpt, paint…or make a decent movie. Overall, a great disappointment that tells a boring story and gets the basic science wrong. Final Grade: (C)

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Recommendations: The Birds, Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960), Funny Games

All reviews copyright Korova, Ltd. Visit Alex at his Home Theatre Blog, http://korovatheatrepresents.blogspot.com/

Special Movie Review - Gattaca

I had to watch Gattaca for my film class, but I really enjoyed this movie. I was looking forward to it anyway, because I had heard talk of it in my psychology class when we studied engineering human genes, so I was ready for some Valid/Invalid genoism.

Gattaca is about a future where we can genetically engineer people to be better than regular humans. However, you can choose to have your baby be a regular human, except that they are ridiculed and given the lower-status jobs, because there are better life-forms suited for the higher-paying, more important jobs. These regular human beings are called Invalids, which our protagonist is, and the genetically engineered ones Valids. The main character Vincent has always wanted to go to space, but with his Invalid status he has no chance to. His brother was always better than him, since he was born a Valid, but through hard work Vincent learned to become better than his bro. And then, he decides to become Jerome, a Valid man who has disappeared from existence and loans him his identity in order for Vincent to infiltrate the huge space business Gattaca. Through a series of bodily fluid tricks and close shaving, Vincent is able to get through to the space program at Gattaca until the head guy at Gattaca is murdered and Vincent starts making mistakes, which leads to the conflict of him running from the police.

The movie is quite elaborate, and the characters are well-defined and feel human. This helps to compliment the fact that no one can know whether anyone is a Valid or Invalid without testing some of their DNA. If you're not drawn in by the sexy and sleek, clean and orderly future that is Gattaca, then you'll surely be drawn in by the elegant and witty script-writing.

Everything in Gattaca is precise and orderly. Every sound is accentuated, every detail is in place. All of the lights are a soft yellow or blue. The machines are very appealing; they're all designed with aesthetics in mind.

The way Vincent is able to penetrate Gattaca is very clever. We see all of the ways that Vincent gets around bodily testing explained, and for the most part it feels realistic and believable. I did think that Vincent was careless in some places though, for one being when he has been sweating on the treadmill and he goes into the locker room, slamming into one of the lockers. His sweat has to be on the locker, but we don't see him wipe it down. Another place is where he gives an Invalid a cup that he had been holding and drinking out of. His DNA would be all over that cup, and if it were me and I was being looked at for being an Invalid, I would have been more careful of disposing of whatever I touched with my own hands.

The backstory on Vincent really characterizes himself and his family, especially his brother, which comes up later and makes the whole story circle in on itself. There's also a love story that we are both happy and nervous for, because /</igspan style="FONT-STYLE: italic"/>/igUma Thurman</span> does not know that Vincent is an Invalid. I think that if there wasn't as much focus on the brother and Vincent's love interest, we wouldn't feel so compelled to urge Vincent on.

And we do feel like we want Vincent to succeed. There are a few suspenseful scenes in the movie where we're sure Vincent will be found out, but to our surprise, he overcomes it. I'll just say the scene where Jerome has to climb up the stairs had me on the edge of my seat, like a little kid about to pee his pants and no potty in sight.

To the scriptwriters, well done. It was a tear-jerking, witty, smart and overall successful screenplay with little to no errors that I could find. The design is sexy and totally pleasing to look at. It's also refreshing to see that in this world of Valid/Invalid racism, or genoism as they call it in the movie, there are still people who find that a human is a human with no predetermined limits, which Vincent shows by becoming better than the Valids. With work ethic, anything is possible.

Heartwarming and sad at the same time, both Vincent and Gattaca shine with the stars.

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Last updated: 2010-01-17 07:19:19 by user01

Gattaca - There is no gene for the human spirit

Writer/director Andrew Niccol debuted in 1997 with this powerful science fiction film of genetic manipulation and discrimination in the near future. As a piece of science fiction, it could even be labelled biopunk; but what makes Gattaca such an impressive film is its use of this SF framework as a call to remain vigilant about discrimination specifically, and to explore the human condition generally, which any worthy piece of art does. It's a masterpiece of minimalist filmmaking. Not just in the sense of less-is-more, though that certainly applies, but in a truer artistic sense where the minimalism itself is an aesthetic starting point, consistently referencing itself on both a thematic and visual level.

Many of the locations used date back to the 1950s style of 'brutalist' architecture – all hard corners and repetitive angles. Some do date earlier, but still fall within this visual aesthetic. As a result, the film has a retro-futuristic noir overtone that suits the murder mystery driving the plot. There's also the 1950s Los Angeles-style sunset that bathes any outdoor scene as well. It's a technique that has always reminded me of a kind of duality, of something both beautiful and on the verge of ending. In Gattaca, thanks to the advancements in genetics, these people represent a pinnacle of human existence. But the film's theme reminds us that such an existence is a fundamentally hollow one if the individual feels no compulsion to better him or herself: "there is no gene for the human spirit."

Gattaca also represents the first major film appearance of Jude Law. He is Jerome Morrow, genetically perfect, but confined to a wheelchair after damaging his spine in a car accident (it's hinted he stepped in front of the oncoming car on purpose). Though he is one of society's elite, he lacks the ambition to make anything of his life. Enter Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke), a 'faith birth' conceived the old-fashioned way and therefore relegated to society's new underclass of genetically (mentally, physically) inferior humans. He desperately wants to go up in one of many manned space missions that the Gattaca Corp operates, and so he becomes a 'borrowed ladder', conspiring with Jerome to take on his superior genetic identity to enter Gattaca and realise his dream (in return Vincent must keep Jerome in the lifestyle he has become accustomed to as an elite). The murder of one of the mission directors promises to make the last days leading up to Vincent’s launch dangerous and threatens to bring his secret to light.

One of the film's strengths, particularly as a piece of science fiction, is that it's through the acting that theme is fully realised. Andrew Niccol doesn’t rely on mindblowing visuals or an over-abundance of CGI: he elicits entirely believable performances from his cast. He does what all good SF does: extrapolates a potential future based on our present and places his characters within that space. It's the opposite of the science fantasy of Star Wars, where Harrison Ford's infamous quip "George, you can type this shit, but you sure as hell can't say it" couldn’t be further from the world of Gattaca. That’s not a criticism of Star Wars, just a way of highlighting the different kind of science fiction Niccol is producing.

There's also the relationship that blossoms between Vincent and Irene (Uma Thurman), in which the contradiction of being human is played out. Just as he is about to realise his life's dream, Vincent finds a reason to stay. Irene is also more than just a love interest. Like Jerome, she is one of the elite, though for whatever reason, her parents chose to leave her with a heart condition, making her less than perfect. It's something she struggles with the entire film – how can she be elite if she's fated for an early death? She therefore occupies a grey area between society's elite and inferior classes.

Gattaca is also a superior film for a number of other reasons. Take, for instance, the brief scene where the cleaners arrive at Gattaca – they are all white, middle aged males, visually supporting the idea that this future no longer discriminates on the basis of race, sex or religion, that the divisions these things once caused have been reversed. Next is Michael Nyman's excellent score, perfectly capturing Vincent’s journey through a series of poignant themes (the opening sequence, for example), while also marrying his stark minimalist trademark to Niccol's location choices (Nyman, and the score for Gattaca are both somewhat misunderstood by the film score community, I might add).

You need a criticism? We're never really treated to a wider view of this world. There's a sense that it's a little Big Brother-ish (the police line-up, for example), but no proper indication as to how genetic manipulation at this level came to be so integral in this world, nor how it might have impacted other facets of society.

Gattaca wins such praise from me, though, because all of its many positive elements combine to one final, emotionally-charged gut punch. The fact that the doctor and, it's hinted, the surviving mission director are both aware of Vincent's secret, yet neither decide to turn him in, is a sign of their own belief in the human spirit; Irene's realisation that her heart condition needn't stop her from leading a full life; Jerome's belief in Vincent, not to mention his decision to take his own life; and Vincent finally entering the rocket, taking off with the starscape laid out in front of him. Gattaca is a very beautiful, surprisingly grounded, and ultimately optimistic film that has actually had a significant impact in the debate surrounding genetic manipulation. Not bad fora stodgy SF film the Los Angeles Times labelled "far too serious to be taken seriously."

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Recommendations: Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea (Gake no ue no Ponyo), Fountain, The (Darren Aronofsky, 2006)

Last updated: 2010-02-25 08:46:56 by SethMerlo