Gattaca
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.09 You Save: $10.85 (73%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.54 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Canada
Movie Reviews of Gattaca
Movie Review: Beautiful, Haunting Science Fiction
Summary: 5 Stars
All those who think Star Wars is good science fiction, beware: Gattaca just might change your life. With nothing more than some gorgeously stark cinematography and direction; skillful, nuanced acting and a few well-chosen details, Gattaca sets the standard for serious sf films, telling a story that takes off from an interesting intellectual premise and ends up affecting the viewer on a richly emotional level. Vincent, born without the aid of genetic engineering, hampered by his predispositions for violence and early heart failure, longs to make it out to space; when simple hard work and dedication fail to pay off, he turns to deception, purchasing the genetic legacy of genetically flawless but suicidal Jerome Morrow to get in the door at the Gattaca Corporation, his launching pad into space. Just as Vincent's goal comes into sight, someone bludgeons his mission director to death. The investigators who descend on the corporation soon discover a stray eyelash Vincent left behind, and name him as a suspect. Vincent, meanwhile, must continue his life as "Jerome" under the watchful gaze of the investigators while pursuing a romantic relationship with the nearly-flawless Irene. And the lead investigator is the last person Vincent wants to see.
Gattaca boasts some remarkable performances. Jude Law, playing Jerome, infuses all of his lines with anguished self-loathing, the anguish of one who never asked for the perfection--and its attendant expectations--that he was given, while Uma Thurman, as Irene, offers one of the subtlest performances of her career playing a woman whose perfection just isn't perfect enough for the world into which she was born. Loren Dean, as Vincent's younger, genetically improved brother Anton, also gives some affecting scenes.
A protagonist's role is usually the least demanding of a movie, as the need to be likeable and sympathetic tends to preclude much complication or darkness, but even in his limited role as Vincent, Ethan Hawke does remarkably well.
Gattaca is a movie well put-together from start to finish; every element of the film falls into place, and its cumulative effect is one that's hard to forget, even long after the credits roll. Highly recommended.
Movie Review: Don't overlook Jude Law in this cautionary tale
Summary: 5 Stars
One hallmark of a truly good movie is that it leads to other good works and such is true of "Gattaca". I have become an instant fan of not one, or two, but three of this movie's main actors. All have gone on from here to produce superb performances in better than most movies.
"Gattaca" combines what movie-buffs like me love most. An all-star, -- physically beautiful --, young cast, heroes, villains, brotherly love and rivalry, a struggle against government oppression and all set in a not-so-unlikely, not-so-distant disturbing future-world.
Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, two of the best actors of their generation (particularly Miss Thurman), give superior performances. The two main stars had an obvious chemistry both on and off the screen (They married and had a daughter). Although not a block-buster, the film has enjoyed a cult following and is a popular rental.
This movie like all good science fiction relies on a good plot full of human drama that could just as well be set in present-time under slightly different circumstances. The backdrop, lighting and futuristic architecture and even the sound is spooky and eerie. I loved the formal dress everyone wore that more than anything else contributed to the future feel of the movie. The only distraction though is the presence of automobiles that look too much (but don't sound like) cars of this time.
I found it impossible to ignore British actor Jude Law in this film -- particularly the second time I watched it. This movie was Mr. Law's first big break after doing numerous independent films as well as Broadway (for which he earned a Tony nomination). Mr. Law's character is pivotal to the storyline, and his eventual demise is a heartbreaking subplot to the main story. You may not at first recognize him, but you will recall his other subsequent roles in "A.I", Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and "The Talented Mr. Ripley" in which he plays Matt Damon's love interest.
More recently he has made "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" starring opposite Gwyneth Paltrow. That movie is next on my list.
Movie Review: Spirituality or Physicality?
Summary: 5 Stars
Is one doomed to failure or a mediocre life because of his or her invalid physical being? Should one be denied with the right to be successful because of his or her being physically inferior? The film obviously gives us a definite answer.The film starts with some big sounds made by hairs and nails falling onto the ground, which is seemingly unexplainable because of the supposed lightness of hairs and nails. Then, the main character, Vincent Freeman begins his narration of his sorrow childhood in which his right to go to school is denied because he is genetically deficient. His younger brother, who is genetically engineered before birth, is however the perfect human being. In spite of his inborn disadvantage, he holds a dream of being an astronaut. Nevertheless, his dream is only an illusion that cannot be realized in a society where one¡¯s professional success is predetermined solely by one¡¯s genes. He finally leaves his home where his parents and brother all discourage him for his ¡°naive¡± fantasy, and he goes to work in Gattaca Aerospace Center where he is close to his dream and yet so far away as his work is a janitor. Compelled by his unrealized dream, he finds a then-swimming winner, now-cripple, Jerome Morrow. Vincent uses Jerome Morrow¡¯s blood, hair, and urine in order to disguise himself as Morrow and to pass the DNA test at the entrance of the aerospace center. With all his efforts and determination, he, an intelligent young man, finally gets the chance to go the space.
In the film, Vincent¡¯s last name, Freeman, is allegorically significant because he, in spite of his DNA deficiency, succeeds out of the limitation of physical; on the contrary, Jerome¡¯s last name, Morrow, which means tomorrow, has an ironic implication as he, despite his superior genes, has not much future due to the fact that he canis immobilized due to an accident.
This film invites the audience to meditate the relationship between physical and spiritual and whether one's fate should be determined by its physical inferiority
Movie Review: "Sorry...the wind caught it...."
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is such a triumph. In a world where people are being genetically altered as to be given the best possible start to their lives, Vincent (Ethan Hawke) is what is known as an "in-valid" someone who can't hold a prominent job in society unless they exist on what is known as "borrowed ladder" one of the social elite that has no use for their identity anymore. In this movie, Vincent exists on a borrowed ladder to achieve his dream of getting into Gattaca and becoming an astraunaut, through Jerome and he appears to be doing very well until the director of missions is murdered. Vincent accidently leaves his "in-valid" DNA in the corridor and that leaves them to suspect that he killed the director.
What I loved about this movie though is its realism as to the future of DNA. While doing research for a paper on forensic science I found that there are laws that investigators in Britain, Japan, and the Netherlands can use DNA technology to determine a person's ethnic mix and that scientists are extremely hopeful that DNA will one day allow them to get a profile of a suspect.
If one watches closely in the scene where they find a match to invalid DNA, they bring up Vincent's picture, which provides them with a pictorial match to the suspect immediately. Some geneticists have said that such technology like the ones used in Gattaca would be blurring the line between medical and science investigation.
There is also some great symbolism in this movie as well. For example, if you look at the name Jerome, and the word Genome, they rhyme. Given that Jerome has perfect genes I do believe that this was intentional on the part of Andrew Nicolli, the director. Also, in one scene you see Eugene pull himself a set of stairs that have a structure similar to the double-helix model. Then there is the title itself, Gattaca is composed entirely of letters of bases found in a double-helix.
This movie is a great movie that touches the human spirit and shows what can happen even when the "ladder" is stacked against you.
Movie Review: "THERE IS NO GENE FOR THE HUMAN SPIRIT"
Summary: 5 Stars
Maybe Gattaca, which has great performances from some top stars, would be justly more famous if there were a large genre of 'tech noir', which was understood to be about ordinary people in an ordinary world, but with the science and technology of the future both tightening the parameters of the game and increasing the glittering prizes which are most certainly not for all. But it has to be admitted that this is also a gritty parable, which hits hard and low, and is as much a dystopia as Star Wars is a feelgood romp.
In the world of Gattaca (which is the name of the aerospace company in the film, formed from the initials of the amino acids which compose DNA - Glycine, Adenine, Thymine, and Cytosine), the engineering of DNA has reached the point where there are now two tribes - those with the best engineered DNA, giving them strength, height, the desired hair colour, intelligence, perfect eyesight, etc. And the others, with the usual human flaws and variabilities. Anyone can get a test to tell you to a percentage point whether you will die of heart failure or cancer though, which is handy for planning your life but not so handy for getting insurance cover for the things you really need it for. Girls kiss their dates to get a DNA sample on their lips, and get a quick five-minute DNA readout to check whether it is worth a second night out.
Our hero (Ethan Hawke) is the ordinary man who sets out to beat the system which condemns him to being second class. One of the best of the DNA best, whose life proved that having all the advantages does not guarantee success in life helps him. "There is no gene for fate", is the moral of the story and it is delivered as a low key line. This is a film which relies on the overall effect to make its point. The official tag-line of the film, which is on the DVD cover is similar: "There is no gene for the human spirit". It all proves that the Selfish Gene is not the first or last word on human life or our future. The ending is a shocker, and all the better for that.