Gattaca (8/10)

1997
Directed and Written By Andrew Niccol
Starring Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law

Genre: Sci-FI, Suspense

From the writer of "The Truman Show", this movie comes from in a similar vein but a completely different arena. Ethan Hawke plays a natural "God birth" in a world where babies are genetically engineered to be perfect, and as such he is a much "weaker" person than everyone around him, including his own brother. But he has a dream of being an astronaut, and he is determined to achieve it, and so he assumes the identity of a man better engineered than he, giving him the genetics to get him into the space academy, and allowing him to pursue his dream.

It's a clever story with some very serious undertones; not accepting one's own hand, the shame of living as someone you're not (because what you are isn't good enough), the human spirit, the jealousy of those who have been outstepped by those who haven't, etc. And all in all, it's superb. There are some gorgeous moments in the film, where the uniqueness of the setting helps portray the underlying ideas so well. For example, living as a different man, he has to constantly keep himself from shedding dead skin and hair, and instead leave traces of his alter ego in his place, and this habit ultimately makes him ashamed of his own skin.

The cinematography is great for 1997, and the movie never outsteps it's own means, which is something I find to be so important. That is, it never uses some kind of ridiculous CGI to render something that ultimately looks absolutely fake. For a science fiction, futuristic, movie, this one's much more character and dialogue based than anything else. There is a voice over for only a small portion of the movie, but, as it only rarely does, it actually adds instead of detracts from the overall film. Ethan and Uma's relationship is one of understanding more than anything, because she, like him, has a falty heart as a result of bad genetics, and while she thinks he is a perfect man, he relates to her in that both of them have achieved unimaginable things for themselves.

Anyway, I've said all I need to say. Go rent it.