Gattaca

How do you hide when you're running from yourself?

GATTACA (12)

D: Andrew Niccol

Columbia Tristar/Jersey Films (Michael Shamberg, Danny DeVito & Stacey Sher)

USA 🇺🇸 1997

106 mins

Science Fiction

W: Andrew Niccol

DP: Slawomir Idziak

Ed: Lisa Zeno Churgin

Mus: Michael Nyman

PD: Jan Roelfs

Ethan Hawke (Vincent Anton Freeman), Uma Thurman (Irene Cassini), Jude Law (Jerome Eugene Morrow), Alan Arkin (Det. Hugo), Loren Dean (Anton Freeman), Gore Vidal (Director Josef), Ernest Borgnine (Caesar)

A decent directorial debut from Andrew Niccol, writer of The Truman Show, amongst others. Gattaca has a unique visual style which expertly captures an alien, dystopian future where the lives of the planet's population are pre-destined at birth by genetically engineered DNA. Physical perfection is normal, and those who don't meet the standard are considered flawed and form the lower class "invalids" of society.

One of these "invalids", Vincent Freeman (Hawke), set with an ambition to succeed in the Gattaca space programme regardless of his lack of "qualification" borrows the identity of Jerome (Law), a crippled "valid" who is happy to provide blood, tissue and urine samples in return for financial gain.

A murder-mystery subplot sidelines the main story around the halfway point, making the film rather predictable, but it's still a very decent sci-fi effort, complete with a rather downbeat, non-Hollywood ending.

7/10