PopSyndicate.com

Gattaca takes place in the not-so-distant future. Babies are made in test tubes and DNA is carefully chosen to ensure disease-free, heterosexual children. But Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke) is conceived the old-fashioned way, and enters the world without a chance of success at life. His blood tests reveal a weak heart and show him to be attention deficient and prone to manic depression. He’s destined for menial labor.

But Freeman has bigger plans. He dreams of pursuing a career exploring space. His only hope is a new identity, provided by a black-market broker, and a genetically superior man (played by Jude Law), who has lost the use of his legs. It is a grueling way of life. Vincent must strap on a bag of urine every morning on the chance of a random drug test, and scrub himself of all hair and dead skin to avoid leaving DNA that could be traced to his true identity.  But when a coworker is murdered, an eyelash is found belonging to Vincent and he must keep one step ahead of the authorities in order to preserve his dream of going into space.

Uma Thurman plays Hawke’s love interest, a woman obsessed with her own flaws. Performances in this film are excellent, from Thurman’s almost robotic manner, consistent with behavior under this society’s kind of scrutiny, to Law’s portrayal of a broken man. Especially touching is his scene where he puts his Olympic metal around his neck for the last time.

Bonus features include a “making of” feature titled “Welcome to Gattaca” and the original “making of” from 1997. There is also a documentary titled “Do Not Alter” exploring the realm of DNA and its possibilities.

The story was original in 1997 when the film first came out, and seems all the more plausible today, as DNA is understood and cloning humans is technically do-able.  This sci-fi classic would make a wonderful addition to anyone’s DVD library. It’s worth seeing a few times, as the metaphors, allegories, and symbolism could be missed the first time.

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