Gattaca Review

How do you hide when you’re running from yourself?

This film is definitely not “Blade Runner”.  However, I believe that it runs pretty darn close as far as how good it is.  It is a very original story that the Writer and Director came up with.  The music was even beautiful.

Set in the future, where gene profiling happens to try and make a ‘perfect’ world, but what really concerns me is the probability of this actually happening to our world, now.  Vincent, played by Ethan Hawke, was given a ‘lower’ life due to his genes.  With a 99% probability of a heart problem, he was never going to be allowed to have the job that he always dreamed of, and that was working for a company, similar to our own, NASA.  He meets a man, who tells him that there is someone who he could ‘use’ their body for trying to achieve his dream.  He then meets Jude Law, whose character is Jerome, who agrees to doing the ‘trade’.  But in order to do this, Vincent will have to totally pretend that he is Jerome by using his blood, urine, and other things like strands of his hair, fingernails, and skin.  Unfortunately, due to a death at the company, an investigation takes place, and the identity of the killer starts unraveling.  Will Vincent be ultimately found out?

This story really moved me, and this was the 4th time that I watched it.  A couple of years ago, I never really felt this way before while watching this film.  Maybe because when you are told that you have a Chronic Illness, you see the world in a total different way.  Even the simplest things can bother someone who is told this.  People suggesting that you do not admit that you have an Illness is one of them.  But imagine your world turning into what happened in “Gattaca”.  You might already have to do drug testing and physicals when it comes to your job, or even when you are seeking a job.  But in this film, when you are born, and are already pre-disposed to having ANY illness?  You just might only be able to clean toilets for the rest of your life.  So, should everybody be ‘perfect’?  If the answer is yes, I truly believe that we would all be living in a pretty messed up world.

Some of the things that occurred in this film have already happened in the world.  Just like in the film, Jude Law’s character – the ‘real’ Jerome had an accident and is confined to a wheelchair.  He would be discriminated against in the film if the world found out what really happened to him.  Things like this already happens in our world.

Is “Gattaca” already on its way?