EssenceStory Well Deserved Praise

Tockinit not horrible nor great

ScoobyMint Disappointment for a huge fan!

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Paul J. Nemecek Futuristic science fiction is the genre that most creatively explores our most basic hopes and fears. In film, images of the future tend to run in one of two directions. Some films depict a post-apocalyptic world in which social order has deteriorated and anomie is pervasive. The Mad Max films and Waterworld (which is really just Mad Max gone sailing) fall into this category. Films like Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" or the more recent "The Handmaid's Tale" depict a future that is repressive and tightly controlled with Big Brother just around every corner. Gattaca falls into this latter category.Ethan Hawke plays a character who lives in a time of genetic engineering. Parents can select or fix traits before birth so that all children are physically sound, intelligent, disease-resistant, etc. Hawke's character, Vincent, was born the old-fashioned way, and therefore has bad eyesight, heart problems, and a short life-expectancy. He is therefore assigned to menial labor in a space center where he spends his days dreaming of being an astronaut and soaring above his socially prescribed limitations.Working through a black-market DNA dealer, Vincent arranges for a new identity by purchasing the genetic identity of Jerome (Jude Law), a "perfect specimen" who was crippled in a car accident. Jerome provides blood and urine samples that enable Vincent to trick the system, but Vincent lives in a world where an eyelash out of place or dead skin on a computer keyboard could give him away. The story gets particularly complicated when someone is murdered at the space center, just as Vincent is nearing his goal. At this point, the film becomes part detective story, part science fiction, with a little romance provided by Vincent's coworker Irene (Uma Thurman).This is the film debut of writer-director Andrew Niccol. The story idea is interesting, and the storytelling strategy works fairly well. Vincent's relationship with his brother seems a bit contrived, and the chemistry between Vincent and Irene doesn't quite click, but perhaps this is one of the points of the film. In a hyperrational world (modernism carried to its logical conclusion), perhaps this is what becomes of sentiment, emotion, and the human spirit.Gattaca is not without its flaws, but for the viewer who is interested in futuristic science fiction that goes beyond the well-worn formulas, Gattaca is worth a look.

classicsoncall I wanted to like this movie as it began because the concept appeared to be rather interesting. But as the film progressed, it seemed like one had to take more and more things for granted that defied common sense. The biggest one was the most obvious; even with Jerome Morrow's (Jude Law) insistence that no one would recognize Vincent Freeman's (Ethan Hawke) attempted impersonation, I couldn't think of anything else throughout the movie. They really DID NOT look like each other. How difficult was that for anyone to figure out?Then there was the business with the eyelash. How about trying this little experiment. Take one of your own eyelashes and randomly set it down somewhere in your home or room. Do you think you'd ever find it again? In the picture, that eyelash looked almost huge sitting there on that ledge. And how would it have gotten there? Seriously, consider the logistics required for that to happen.Then there's something that's a bit more subtle but still thought provoking. The real Jerome Morrow explained that his 'accident', getting hit by an automobile, was done on purpose. But why? As one of the elite of society, what motivation would he have had to harm himself in such a manner? Surely placing second in a swimming meet and winning a silver shouldn't have been that traumatic. Perhaps he took it to heart that a second place finish was equated to being 'first loser'. Out of everything in the movie, that made about the least amount of sense to me. What I did enjoy were the clever bits of misdirection with the tampering of DNA evidence so that Vincent could pass some of the testing requirements. But as far as being likeable, I don't think any of the principal characters succeeded on that score, and what could have passed for an ironic Twilight Zone type of ending never materialized. And if pressed to give an answer, what was so appealing about flying off to the fourteenth moon of Saturn anyway?

hotmaleajayg I must confess i was too late in watching this movie. The casting is perfect good breed of actors - Ethan Hawke, Jude Law, Uma Thurman, they played their part to perfection. Loved the narration in the first half. The background music was so beautiful, it engages your mind and soul into the movie. Andrew Niccol has built a steady pace in the movie, easy to follow. He touches on the inherent weakness of man - discrimination! He takes it to a real scientific possibility! The story is told so beautifully till the end. Lets make no mistake and give Jude Law credit as well, he plays his part very well and its an important part in the movie, its due to him that Ethan Hawke is able to pursue his dream. All the scenes in the movie is well played out. But the story of a man wanting to achieve his dream, with all his inherent defects, beating all odds at all stages, the triumph of the human spirit is truly endearing. Its a much watch movie that's all i can say, it would help one realise and connect one's own life story in a way. Truly up with the best of movies of all time (like a shawshank redemption), albeit ahead of its time. Go for it!

a_chinn Smart science fiction set in a future where people are genetically tested at birth and their lot is life is set from that point forward. Ethan Hawke plays a man who's genetics determined he live a life be as a simple laborer, but he's more ambitions and decides to pose as the genetically superior Jude Law, who's in chaoots with Hawke to hide the fact that he's been crippled in an accident. The film works well as a straight forward sci-fi thriller about Hawke trying to hide his true identity from the cops, but what makes this film special is that it also works brilliantly on a more intellectual level as a story about class, privacy, ethics of reproductive technologies, as well as larger topics of destiny. Besides having a smart subtext, the film also works on an emotional level where you really care about the characters. The relationship between Hawke and Uma Thurman, who plays a wonderful ice queen, is riveting. Does she love Hawke or does she love what his genetics (i.e. class, wealth, reputation)? If this film had been made in the 1950s, Grace Kelly would have been perfect of the role. There are also strong supporting performances by Ernest Borgnine as an elderly janitor who gives Hawke depressing life lessons from the underclass before Hawke assumes his new identity, Gore Vidal as a pompous executive, and Alan Arkin as a subordinate detective who's actually onto Hawke but his suspicions dismissed by his genetically superior lead detective. I'd put "Gattaca" among the best science fiction films of the last 20 years, alongside "Inception," "Primer," and "Ex-Machina."