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Gattaca

Threat advisory: High - High risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

There is no gene for the human spirit.

This futuristic thriller invites audiences to enter an alternate future in which designer people - forged in test tubes - rule society and genetics determine a person's future. In this world, a person with the right genetic stuff can do anything; but a person with even a slight defect or even potential for defect is a prisoner of his own biological cells.

The film stars Ethan Hawke as Vincent Freeman, a young man determined to break out of his imperfect genetic destiny and see his dreams come true. That is why he opts for intricate subterfuge to outwit authorities and to become a respected navigator at the futuristic Gattaca Corporation. He is on the verge of fulfilling his dream to be aboard a rocket bound for Titan, when a down-to-earth murder threatens to expose his counterfeit life. Even worse than being branded an impostor, he faces a crueller fate, to be an innocent man condemned as guilty of murder.

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Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film science fiction gene genetic baby space

Cinematic intelligence sources

Gattaca official movie site

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Gattaca is a really sad movie.

Margaret Pomeranz, my very dear and very close personal friend (large name drop and huge exaggeration as I met her for the first time in the lift after the screening), reckoned it was about the triumph of the human spirit, but I reckon it is about the terrible world humanity has created in which so few spirits can triumph.

An original vision subtly flavoured with a dash of Brazil and a pinch of 1984, Gattaca is as much a mirror held up to today's society as it is a warning of future inhumanity. Bigotry, corporatism, glass ceilings, conformism. What a totalitarian web we weave. The odds which Vincent must overcome to succeed, to merely stay alive, are incredible. Auteur Andrew Niccol has created a stunning and crushing vision of the future.

Fortunately we have Ethan breathing life and determination into the character of Vincent: good-looking enough to pass, yet human enough to fail. Uma's character Irene is even better looking, she doesn't have to pass, but we see the weakness that causes her to fail, that humanises her in the face of perfection. Wonderful. This is also the film that launched Jude Laws' career (he plays the genetically perfect but physically and psychologically crippled Englishman).

I liked this film; it is almost erotic in the sensuality of its production values, the clothes, the cars, the hair, the architecture, the music, the sounds.... it is also demanding in its purpose, and there aren't many films that can get me thinking about my pre-conceived ideas about the perfection of humanity (and how I will do it when I am God). Gattaca is suspenseful. It is anguishful. It is almost perfect. There is a little bit too much reliance on co-incidence (in fact any reliance on co-incidence is too much as far as I am concerned), a little too much explanation of the obvious (but we have to keep in mind the intellectually challenged American market), and just a few minutes too long (but only a few).

The worst part is that this is not the kind of film that people go and see because it is too intelligent, too insightful, too bleak, and there are no merchandising opportunities, product placements, promotional orgies or laugh tracks; but if you think I am merely dribbling on and if you only read two words in this review, make it these two: see it.