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GATTACA (1997)

I've given you a film noir, a sports TV show, and a quirky romantic comedy, so I thought it was time for a sci-fi entry. A lot of you may have already seen this one (it's not as under the radar as some of my other choices), but it's goes unmentioned a lot so I'm still gonna toot it's horn.

Gattaca is a modern sci-fi tale lacking any blood-thirsty aliens or artificially intelligent life-forms. It's not particularly technologically advanced, although the issue of space travel has been refined to a regular occurrence. Rather, in this future, the scientific landscape has been modified by gene technology. Infants are no longer conceived and born accidentally, but parents attend gene specialists who create the fetus artificially, using only the best traits of either parent and eradicating "undesirable" attributes such as baldness, poor eyesight, crooked teeth, and inclination for osteoporosis, as well as serious health problems and defects. What results is a beautiful, healthy, genetically superior society.

Ethan Hawke stars as Vincent is a "god-child," born naturally without the benefit of only his parent's best traits, and as such has a weak heart and wears glasses. He also wants to visit the stars, but in this brave new world only the genetically perfect are allowed to have white-collar jobs and Vincent is banished to the janitorial sector as a "de-gene-erate." But he finds a loophole in the system. Through black-market dealing he pairs up with the genetically superior Jerome (Jude Law), who is unfortunately in a wheelchair and unable to take advantage of his genetic gifts. Together, they turn Vincent into a "borrowed ladder," in which he is made to look as much like Jerome as possible, and become him in the real world, essentially borrowing his genetic green-card. Through this tricky maneuvering, Vincent becomes a top flight analyst at a firm also employing the lovely Irene (Uma Thurman), and is next in line for a rare mission to a distant moon. However, when a murder occurs at work, bringing with it throngs of detectives and gene-analysis, Vincent's secret is at risk of discovery.

Many sci-fi stories are concerned with fantastic, over-the-top developments, but the realities of gene superiority are not far-fetched. If that technology did become available, sure we'd get rid of health-risks, but how long would it take before we were tempted to abolish unflattering features, and mild physical hindrances like near-sightedness? In creating a healthy world, would we too aim to create a homogenized one? It's an interesting future to ponder and Gattaca explores it's potential realities with leveling questions and a fondness for the "human spirit." Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman are well-cast, have palpable romantic chemistry, and a certain coolness that fits the futuristic world they occupy. For me, the scene-stealer is a pre-fame Jude Law as the drolly dour Eugene/Jerome, looking sick and sad, but often zinging with his wit. The film is radiantly lit and shoots from creative angles, balancing a hazy beauty with the angular silver constructions of the futuristic sets. And the score is one of my favorites, rousing and inspiring, but containing dark notes of gloom. An excellent combination of science fiction elements and classical Hollywood storytelling.