I love dystopia films. As a closet misanthrope, I get a small thrill seeing new and fresh ways for humanity to consume itself. The best of these movies were made decades ago, in the forties and fifties, but one from the past few years deserves to join their ranks.
Gattaca is a movie about eugenics, the manipulation of DNA to produce perfect people. Ethan Hawke is a "faith birth," his genes unaltered and therefore making his chances for moving up in society nonexistent. Jude Law plays a man with the ideal genes but unable to live up to their expectations. When Law becomes wheelchair-bound, Hawke is able to usurp his identity, to become a "borrowed ladder."
There's a scene early in the film where Hawke is training one last hair into place and comparing it to a photo of Law. That scene defines the whole movie, how expertly crafted it is, how each piece is hammered into place. Nothing is missing and nothing is present that shouldn't be. It's as carefully constructed as a hand-picked embryo. The score, the set design, the script are all thoughtfully considered and lend to a near-perfect film.
The one downfall in the movie is probably the acting. Uma Thurman co-stars as Hawke's love interest, and fellow "faith birth." The script calls for her to be stiff and utilitarian and she unfortunately performs it a little too well. Hawke is okay, not terrible but not great. Law is fantastic, however. He has most of the movie's funniest lines, but delivers them with a thick coating of ambivalence and condescension. It's brilliant. Small parts by Ernest Borgnine, Gore Vidal and Tony Shaloub also stand out.
I admit to being a sucker for film noir which this movie is rich with. Even though it's set in the near future, the characters spend their time drinking and smoking in piano bars instead of enjoying some futuristic pastime like the flesh fair. It could just as easily be Nazi Germany as a future America. The juxtaposition of the future society with the noirish style melds better than you'd expect and gives the film a very unique voice.
This movie is highly regarded by most who see it, but not seen by many. That's a shame, because it's one of my favorite sci-fi flicks. It stands tall in the sci-fi crowd, and holds its own in the lofty sub-genre of dystopia films.
Matt Baker wishes a happy New Year to all fellow followers of the Gregorian calendar.
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