In fact, just the opposite. The writer/director Andrew Niccol (getting a lot of credit for The Truman Show, which people have pointed to as a pretty decent swiping of Phil Dick's Time Out of Joint) works like a good sci-fi writer and uses that premise to as merely a launching point his suspenseful frequently moving flick.
Ethan Hawke plays Jerome, a natural born who has myopia, a defective heart condition and dreams of voyaging into space. As the film starts, we see him at Gattaca, Earth's departure point for long-term space travel, preparing for his year-long trip to Titan. The movie breaks into flashback and shows his childhood in competition with his genetically engineered brother, his obsession with space, his brief career as janitor at Gattaca, and his decision to disguise himself as Vincent, a member of the genetically superior stock in order to get a job. (Vincent is a recently crippled superior who provides his identity, including blood, urine hair and skin in order for Jerome to succeed; Vincent gets paid a huge chunk of Jerome's salary and spends most of his time bitterly drunk). At Gattaca, Jerome/Vincent works to excel and succeeds. He is one week away from achieving his dream when the station's manager is murdered. And from there, all of Jerome's plans start to unravel....
You can see why I so rarely bother with sypnopses. They just ain't my bag. Anyway, for whatever reason, I suppose higher paying jobs and whatnot, people try to disguise themselves as Superiors all the time, and so there's a constant checking of blood, skin, urine, hair, etc., etc., making Jerome a nervous wreck as he carefully buffs himself of dead skin every morning, sprinkles the real Vincent's skin in his keyboard, etc., etc. This nervousness increases as the police find one of his real hairs at the murder site, and suddenly his old picture is everywhere. Nervously hiding in plain sight, Jerome romances Irene (Uma), his co-worker who is coordinating the station's aid to the police in the investiation. The movie becomes, essentially, a nice sci-fi reworking of Hitchcock that basically plays closely to its rules.
Blah, blah, blah. All this is just to set the stage for constant scenes of Hawke doing last minute thinking to avoid getting caught at surprise blood tests, urine tests, roadblocks. Niccol is adept at having Hawke jump from one frying pan to the next, each closer to the fire of discovery. The dialogue is good and crisp, although perhaps a bit too much so. It has the sort of Hollywood overpolish that makes it feel a bit too predictable in some places by being too clever and too tidy.
Gattaca's three great strengths are its wonderful cinematography by Slavomir Idziak, its score by Michael Nyman who manages to out-Philip Glass Philip Glass (I still find myself sort of humming that catchy "la-la-la-la, honk-honk-honk-honk" main theme), and an expertly assembled cast. Hawke is quite well-cast here since he's always been someone who is both handsome and kind of unhealthy looking, thus making him equally believable as both genetic reject and successful ubermensch poseur. As the real Vincent, Jude Law is superb, bitter and clever and nasty and sympathetic. Uma's believable but not particularly compelling, Xander Berkeley has a neat role, as does Gore Vidal (an inspired bit of casting, I think) and Alan Arkin. Overall, the movie has a lot of soul, a dash of wit and is both pleasing on the eye and brain. A pretty good rental for when you want to watch something and then go "hey, that was pretty good."
All written material on these pages is © 1997 by Jeff Lester. With the exception of non-profit distribution, all other rights are reserved.