Gattaca Review

Movie review written in April 2019

Gattaca (1997) has been both praised and despised. When it premiered, it was an absolute failure to the general public. Yet, with time, more and more people have stepped on the other side of the scale. The movie, directed by Andrew Niccol, provides, within its limitations, an intriguing forward-looking view of the future of our world.

Gattaca narrates Vincent’s story. He is a man who was born naturally in a world where babies were genetically modified in the womb to create nearly perfect humans. Sadly, at the moment of his birth, his parents are notified that he’s got a 99% of probability of dying at a young age. His parents decide to genetically design their next son, Anthon, who has every chance of succeeding in the world.

Vincent carries this emotional weight of not being enough throughout his life. Moreover, the system itself has been designed for those with better chances of living and are innately smart, who are called ‘valid’. Thus, as an ‘invalid’ person, all Vincent could aspire to as an adult was to clean bathrooms and floors. Yet, he had much bigger plans for himself.

Vincent meets Jerome Morrow, a former brilliant worker at Gattaca and obviously a ‘valid’ person. Jerome has suffered a severe injury in his back, so he may not return to work as an aspiring astronaut. They see a win-win opportunity for both of them. Vincent goes through a process of physical transformation to become Jerome. His ultimate goal is to be an astronaut at Gattaca. Throughout the remainder of the movie, the new Jerome tries to pull off the character of a valid person even though he’s underqualified. In the midst of his lies to the system, a love story evolves, and his passion for traveling to space gets bigger.

Many of the negative criticism of the movie has focused on the incoherences in the scenery. For example, the cars, clothes, and several other objects are characteristic of the 1960s, while the movie tries to portray a society much ahead of time. Another example is the irony of Vincent actually defying the system and not dying in the attempt.

Either way, the movie was loathed by the audience when it came out. Only $12 out of the $36 million invested was earned in the theaters. However, plenty of articles in the last few years have scored this movie in the top 10 under-appreciated movies of all time. Even though Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman’s acting is unquestionably remarkable, and all the cinematic effects such as lighting, angle, and movement have been employed beautifully, I believe the movie’s sudden vindication is due to another factor.

I’ve found that the true value of this movie relies on the magnificent approach to the futuristic theme and every question that it arouses in the viewer. Most dystopian movies with technology involved solely target the innovations of the future world, but fail to consider its repercussions on the social, economic, and even political phases of humanity.

Nonetheless, Gattaca provides a fresh outlook on the future by addressing a story around the social and economic aspects. The movie creates from scratch a breed social system that may even be mirroring the current one. I believe I’m not exaggerating if I say every viewer questioned how society is going to structure itself in the future. The movie’s transcendence goes far beyond what appears on the screen. Its true accomplishment is finding a way into the spectator’s mind.