GATTACA

REVIEWED BY BRETT WILLIS

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: sexual content, profanity

Rated:

Although no one alive today can remember it, there was once a time when Science Fiction was a serious projection of what real science would be like in the future. Some of Jules Verne’s predictions (like the submarine Nautilus) did come to pass. But since the advent of H.G. Wells, Science Fiction has become almost exclusively a leftist propaganda machine and sensationalist escapism. In Gattaca, we have something close to the old form of Sci-Fi. It’s stylized, slow-moving and non-sensationalist; and it pictures a world of the near future that’s frightening, yet not very different from our own. In that world, a few children are still conceived the old-fashioned way, but most are in vitro fertilizations which are then screened for genetic defects even before implantation (with the excess embryos that have defects, or are the wrong sex, being discarded of course). 

A complete genetic record of every person is kept on computer and anyone can be identified on demand by feeding a small sample of blood, urine, hair or skin cells into a sampling device. Those defined as genetically defective—especially the naturally-conceived “In-valids” or “God-children”—are permanently relegated to lower-class jobs. But human nature being what it is, this tightly-controlled world has a black market in stolen genetic identities. And the “In-valid” Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke), who dreams of working in space, must use a stolen identity if he ever hopes to make his dream a reality. Through a broker, he hooks up with Jerome Eugene Morrow (Jude Law) who is on file as genetically perfect but is paralyzed from an unreported accident. Jerome supplies Vincent with body fluid samples, and some ingenious devices allow Vincent to beat the system by passing those fluids off as his own. 

Vincent works at Gattaca, a space exploration agency, and is scheduled for an upcoming interplanetary flight. He’s also catching the attention of co-worker Irene (Uma Thurman). But when a murder occurs at the agency, the investigators come in with tougher-than-usual identity checks, and Vincent’s luck may have run out. Notable in bit parts are Alan Arkin, Ernest Borgnine and Gore Vidal. Don’t look for splashy special effects; it’s not that kind of Sci-Fi. The strange tone and somewhat wooden acting are apparently part of the film’s intended “mood”—the creation of a world much like ours, only different. To turn a phrase from the elder President Bush, a less kind and less gentle world.

Profanity consists of about a dozen exclamations, including two occurrences of “f*ing” as an expletive and one use of GD as a deliberate distraction during an identity check. There’s a small amount of violence: At one point Vincent must beat up a cop in order to escape arrest; we see the bloody corpse of a murder victim; and there’s an implied suicide. Vincent is shown nude from the waist up, and in one brief shot fully nude in a ¾ rear view, scraping loose skin cells from his body. It’s implied Vincent and Irene sleep together twice, but little is shown in those two scenes. The first one is not only discreet, but shot from a weird upside-down angle. Vincent is sometimes required to give urine samples under direct observation of an official, but his back is always to the camera when this is done. The film also contains some smoking, drinking, and of course bad attitudes.

In our present world, genetic screening is already big business and getting bigger all the time. Alpha-fetoprotein and other testing on the mother is routinely done during early pregnancy, with Amnio or CVS (both of which can trigger spontaneous abortion) as a follow-up test for questionable results and/or if the mother is over age 35. Despite the positive spin in some of the medical literature, the primary purpose for these tests is to find and eliminate as many defective babies as possible. Prolife doctors have no choice but to offer these tests, or they’d be driven out of business by malpractice suits. Also, in my state (and I believe in all states) every child who’s born in a hospital must have a blood sample taken and sent to the state lab for genetic disease screening, unless the parents have religious objections. Like the newborn testing in Gattaca, many of these prenatal and postnatal tests are screening tests and can only offer a “percentage” prediction that a certain defect is present or that a certain disease will occur.

Forced blood and urine testing is also a part of our world, although its most common purpose today is the detection of alcohol or drug abuse. And there are already devices on the market—sold to truck drivers and such—that serve the same purpose as the device used by Vincent: to pass someone else’s urine off as your own, even under direct observation. Forced testing of blood or skin cell DNA, for the purpose of determining the paternity of a child and forcing the father to make support payments, is also an everyday reality. Considering all this and more, the theme of Gattaca isn’t really that far-fetched. What’s amazing is that the film is not a poster piece for genetic discrimination. If anything, Vincent is portrayed as a champion. The triumph of the human spirit over a cold, faceless system that pigeonholes everyone at birth is viewed as a good thing. This is a thinking person’s Sci-Fi, and I recommend it for mature teens and up.