"Blue Genes"
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What You Need To Know:
For a movie which is supposed to represent the triumph of the human spirit over a genetically-determined world, GATTACA is depressing rather than uplifting. One of its heroes commits suicide at the end of the movie. Depressing and lacking any sense of God, GATTACA is a grim look at our future.
Content:
(Pa, Ro, L, V, S, NN, A, M) Pagan worldview of a futuristic world of genetic determination; 3 obscenities & 2 profanities; some grisly images of bloodletting & implied broken legs; briefly depicted fornication; rear male nudity & woman undresses but not to reveal any female nudity; alcohol use; and, miscellaneous immorality including cheating & lying.
More Detail:
In GATTACA, genetically inferior Vincent/Jerome (Ethan Hawke), conceived by a natural sexual relationship between his father and mother, has a meek physique, astigmatism and a heart defect. He is genetically inferior to his gene-perfect brother, Anton (Loren Dean), who was conceived in a petri dish, with family defects removed. Anton is taller, stronger, smarter, and funnier than Vincent. However, to prove the movie’s message that the human spirit can triumph over regulated circumstances, Vincent beats his smug brother in a long-distance swimming contest and then rescues him when Anton nearly drowns.
Vincent finds a job at the Gattaca Corporation, a space exploration firm, where he works as a janitor. Even with his inferior genes, Vincent aspires to be an astronaut. To realize his dream, he finds a genetically perfect but handicapped former Olympic athlete, Jerome/Eugene (Jude Law), to lend him his bodily fluids so that he can pass Gattaca’s stringent and frequent skin, hair, urine, and blood tests to qualify as an astronaut.
On the basis of Vincent’s desire and Jerome’s genes, Gattaca Corporation accepts Vincent as an astronaut, but he drops a single eyelash in the astronaut staging area, which alerts savvy detective, Hugo (Alan Arkin), as to his inferior genetic makeup. This nearly blocks Vincent from realizing his dream of space travel before he can go through with the launch. Furthermore, Vincent’s beautiful girlfriend, Irene (Uma Thurman), doesn’t help him. In a bizarre twist, the movie ends with a disturbing suicide.
Like Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel, BRAVE NEW WORLD, GATTACA posits a grim future where mankind is genetically engineered in a cheerless world of super humans without physical defects. Director Andrew Niccol creates a cold, sterile, depressing, high-tech world that is unlivable. With inexorable logic, GATTACA asks a contemporary ethical question: Would a genetically engineered person still be human? In the age of cloning, this is a timely and pertinent question.
Unfortunately, GATTACA takes itself too seriously for a one-trick pony show. The movie has commendable production design, but lacks hope. It is slow-moving and monotonous. In fact, it exhibits a constant pall of death. If this is the future, let’s go back to the past.
Although objectionable content is kept to a minimum, the depressing nature of this future may put off moral moviegoers. The movie tries to offer some hope by giving Vincent his opportunity, but it seems to say that perfection isn’t worth gaining if it diminishes one’s humanity and accidents still occur.
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