Gattaca (1997)
Genre: Scifi / Thriller
Duration: 106 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Andrew Niccol
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law
IMDb score:
7,7 (348.572)
Releasedate: 7 September 1997
Gattaca plot
"There is no gene for the human spirit."
Thanks to advances in science, it is now possible to predetermine the traits of your children. But Vincent Freeman was born the old-fashioned way and he has to hold his own among the perfect people around him. To fulfill his dream of a space mission, he takes on the identity of a genetically perfect person. But when the mission leader is killed, he's the prime suspect.
Actors and actresses
Vincent Freeman
Irene Cassini
Jerome Eugene Morrow
Detective Hugo
Adult Anton Freeman
Director Josef
"German"
Caesar
Geneticist
Dr. Lamar
Reviews & comments
Mickey b
-
- 764 messages
- 575 votes
Is a real SF, but not my genre. Film needs a good cast and story, but lacks the graphics that we are used to in 2018. It's all a bit too bland and emotionless for me. Never any tension or mystery or anything. Must be an audience for it, unfortunately as a SF fan I don't belong to this genre. But yeah, something for everyone I'd say...
Translated from Dutch · View original
Fisico
-
- 10039 messages
- 5398 votes
TornadoEF5 is one of the users I follow and whose review I appreciate. His positive review of Gattaca made me decide to watch this film and I was certainly not disappointed.
It is Andrew Niccol's debut film and it seems to be one of his best. A year later he participated in Weir's The Truman show, so stories with a certain social message are certainly no stranger to him. Every now and then you read an article about designer babies where parents shop in the "gene store" and get the best qualities for their child. Super people, Übermenschen as you want and that leads to social discrimination as you know today with all kinds of minorities such as migrants, LGBs and the disabled. Gattaca presents this future (?) theme here in a very beautiful and nuanced way. I don't think it's a technology for all of humanity...
But the film goes beyond mere gene therapy. Perfection has become the norm, but homo sapiens is simply not a machine that becomes infallible with the right genes... Ethan Hawke and Jude Law do a fantastic job and have an interesting interaction with each other. They are kicked against the shins of the "system" and they experience that perseverance, character and will are at least as important qualities to succeed. And Vincent's brother experiences that all too much.
The film doesn't last very long, but keeps its quality throughout. Gattaca is a well-maintained psychological thriller that doesn't get lost in pointless or exaggerated action or violence scenes, for example. Cinematographically and visually a gem. The plot surrounding the murder case, however, turns out not to be that interesting and in my opinion could be left out.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Roger Thornhill
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- 6205 messages
- 2551 votes
Excellent SF that has it all: a perfect cast, a strong plot, interesting procedures, suspense, beautiful but sober sets and a socially critical layer. The last scene with Vincent/Jerome and Lamar is one to frame, courtesy of the supercool Xander Berkeley. The DVD (at least my version) contains a number of "lost scenes" which are not essential but which give a few characters extra space and add a nice little twist.
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