Tuesday, March 25, 2008

My Gattaca Retrospective


I fell in love with Andrew Niccol's 'Gattaca' as soon as I laid eyes on it. The stoic crime drama set in 'not the distant future' pits identity theft against a world where genetics is key to all things variable. Minutes from meeting Ethan Hawke's Jerome Morrow, a successful astronaut in a Neo-NASA like environment, we learn he's not Jerome Morrow. Like a school kid who just witnessed their favorite cartoon character killed, my head cocked a little to the right.

With a cast who has yet to reach their peaks, Andrew Niccol uses them to unravel the near-perfect society. Though charisma is not endorsed in performances by Niccols, I couldn't help but see hints of Jude Law breaking out into the actor he is today. The scene in which is he was 'random searched' by a police officer showed great poise. Speaking of the cast, I checked out Loren Dean's IMDB profile because I wondered what happened to him- apparently nothing did since he is consistently working.

The twists and turns of this story echoes people who are trapped in bodies and wants something more than they are destined for. To borrow a line from Tom Ripley, "Isn't it better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody?"

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