Gattaca review

 Number 460 on the top 1000 films of all time is the science-fiction film 'Gattaca.'

Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke) wants nothing more than to be an astronaut and go to space with the Gattaca Aerospace corporation. The catch? He is an "in-valid" - a child that did not receive any gene-editing before birth. To achieve his goals, he impersonates quadriplegic Jerome Morrow (Jude Law.) However, when Gattaca's mission director is killed, Vincent is framed and his secret is in danger of being discovered.

Gattaca was a disappointing attempt to engage in some important ideas. Gene-editing is no doubt a sensitive topic. Sure if you have the chance to stop your child from developing cancer or dying from heart disease by the time they're thirty, why wouldn't you take that chance? But where do you stop? Do you remove any arbitrary characteristics you don't like like? What happens if you don't edit your child at all? Will they be discriminated against?

Gattaca attempts to answer these questions in a cold and sterile way. Despite having some talented actors like Ethan Hawke, Jude Law and Uma Thurman, who played Vincent's love interest Irene, I didn't care about any of the characters. All three actors are Oscar-nominated and I've enjoyed Ethan Hawke as a romantic and action lead, but I wasn't invested in Vincent. I don't think he was either, as it wasn't one of his most charismatic performances.

He also lacked on-screen chemistry with Jude Law. Jude Law plays Jerome who helps Vincent impersonate him by providing him with plenty of DNA samples. Despite some arguing, the two develop a begrudging respect for one another, but I still didn't find their relationship very believable.

I also saw attempts to create heart through a love story between Vincent and Irene. Although Hawke and Thurman began dating off-screen and later married, as a result of this film, this off-screen chemistry failed to translate to on-screen.

The same can be said through a subplot between Vincent and a reunion with an apparently long-lost brother who is investigating Vincent's involvement in the murder of the director of Gattaca's space programme. Yet this storyline fell emotionally flat too. The murder subplot never felt immediate enough to have any tangible effect on the plot. Plus there was never any on-screen rift or conflict to suggest that the two brothers had fallen out with each other after their childhood.

Sadly, like many science-fiction films, Gattaca became so obsessed with exploring its key ideas, it failed to create interesting characters.