Gattaca (1997)

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Gattaca (1997) – A. Niccol

Surely “designer babies” were not too far-fetched an idea in 1997, but Gattaca takes this premise further and proposes a world where the technology has been so widely adopted that to be imperfect means to be discriminated against.  Members of this underclass (whose parents did not engineer them) work as cleaners and such – unless they use the black market to buy an identity from one of the privileged who has fallen from grace.  DNA testing is everywhere, used for job interviews, prospective relationship partners, and, of course, for the detection of crime.  To buy an identity means an elaborate and ongoing con to avoid being caught.  Ethan Hawke, an “invalid” who desperately wants to be an astronaut, purchases Jude Law’s identity (which he gives up after succumbing to the pressure of expectations to be perfect) and begins to work for the Gattaca corporation, assigned to visit Titan, one of Saturn’s moons.  When one of the company directors is murdered, the subsequent investigation (led by Alan Arkin) threatens to expose Hawke.  Uma Thurman, also working at the company, begins to suspect things but also falls in love with Hawke, thinking him as perfect as he pretends to be…  In the hands of first-time director, Andrew Niccol, this potentially intriguing and dystopian premise is rather glossy and flaccid.  The surfaces are gleaming and futuristic, sure, but somehow we only see these surfaces and not enough depth. A remake might better reveal the complex psychological tensions underneath?