Review of Gattaca (1997) by William N — 21 Feb 2011

Watched this movie again after quite a while and have to say I had forgotten how wonderful it is. I love the cold, stark atmosphere of the society where your genes damn or promote your prospects in a futuristic world that owes a lot in terms of style to the 1950s.

Ethan Hawke plays the imperfect but determined janitor Vincent while Jude Law is the genetically superior but wheelchair bound Jerome. Bought together by a black market gene broker, Jerome provides the genetic cover for Vincent to gain a place at GATTACA, the organisation that is shooting people off to a new life among the stars.

All is going well until there is a murder and the discovery of a unaccounted for eyelash threatens to unmask Vincent and bring his dreams crashing down. Uma Thurman is the co-worker who falls for Vincent and becomes embroiled in the scheme and there are some neat roles for veteran Ernest Borgnine and Gore Vidal.

The movie is filmed in a muted colour palette and has a sparse and icy score by Michael Nyman which perfectly suits the tone of the story. It is a chilly tale of suspicion and mistrust that owes a great deal to the McCarthyite witch-hunts and conspiracies of the era that stylistically influences the movie.

It is a proper grown-up science fiction tale so don't expect ray guns, robots and aliens but, like all good scifi, this is an allegory that can be appreciated on many levels and is highly recommended.