Gattaca (2008, Blu-ray Disc)

Gattaca was a science fiction movie that seemed, from the ads, to be only mildly interesting. From word of mouth it sounded not-so-great. But I eventually got around to watching it anyway.

I'm very glad that I did.

Gattaca is the story of one man's attempt to overcome nature and achieve his dreams. Society in his time has so heavily adopted genetic engineering that his status as a "God-child," a natural, un-engineered birth, puts him at the bottom of the totem pole. Since his dream is to fly into space, his perceived lack of ability completely gets in the way. The only job he can get is as a janitor. Eventually a man hooks Vincent up with one of the genetic elite who is willing to sell his identity in return for money. Thus begins an elaborate deception in which one misstep will crush all of Vincent's dreams forever. The plot, of course, becomes complicated when Vincent falls in love with one of his colleagues.

I know, you're already leaping to correct me. You want to email me and tell me that the movie isn't about overcoming nature, it's about overcoming science. Well, I don't agree. Let me explain.

The ads for this movie were misleading, and resulted in my only being mildly interested in seeing the movie. They presented it as this "big brother is watching you" sort of a movie. And yes, in some small ways it is like that. But that isn't the focus of the movie, it's just a part of the setting.

I was told by a number of people that Gattaca was heavily anti-science. Since I worked at MIT at the time, that rankled a lot of the people I know. However, while I can unfortunately understand how they came away with that impression (the advertising campaign certainly didn't help), I do not believe that this movie was at all anti-science. It is anti-bigotry, yes. It is anti-social misuse of science, yes. It tries to point out that science is wonderful, science is the stuff dreams are made out of, but that people are capable of misusing and abusing anything. At the same time, it also shows us that people are capable of achieving anything.

Let me explain a little further. First of all, the great dream that Vincent pursues is to go to the stars - a very science-oriented dream. Secondly, in the pursuit of his goal Vincent employs all sorts of scientific trickery to hide his "in-valid" DNA from detection. He fights science with science, in other words. Third, nowhere is it said that the genetically "perfected" people aren't good people, completely capable of producing brilliant work and carrying on relationships with other people. It is only the social structure that surrounds them that is vilified. Again, Gattaca is all about Vincent's attempt to overcome nature. He must overcome all of the ways in which he is somehow substandard - lower IQ, bad vision, etc. - in order to triumph over those who are supposedly his betters. Isn't this what we're all trying to do, every day of every year? Aren't we all trying to break free of what we're "supposed" to be in order to be what we can be? When various characters in the movie broke away from what they were supposed to do in order to help Vincent, they weren't breaking laws of science. They were breaking laws of man.

My only complaint was that the "big brother"-ish society was too much so. I could easily believe that the big companies had established genetic guidelines. I could buy the fact that Vincent's predicted heart failure (among other things) would cause him to fall short of these guidelines. But I had problems with the fact that he said the only job he could get was as a janitor. There are so many jobs in the world that should have fallen into that level of work; it was a bit of hyperbole that stretched believability. The idea that his entire job interview at the space agency consisted of a DNA test was too much - as some of the characters amply demonstrated, even the "elite" are capable of being screwups. Companies would have to be aware of this and thus would never rely simply upon genetic testing to pick their employees.

Also, the whole "valid" and "in-valid" distinction irritated me. If "in-valid" had simply been a company-wide thing, such that an in-valid DNA sequence showing up would simply mean that they'd found someone who didn't work for the company, I would have been happy. But it seemed to be a society-wide thing. Given that plenty of people in the world have high IQ's and good health without any engineering, too firm a line between engineered and non-engineered has been drawn. Especially given the statement, somewhere in the movie, that such discrimination was technically not legal.

Overall, I very much enjoyed Gattaca. My complaints were mild and fleeting; they only bothered me at odd moments. The performances were masterfully played - the characters were amazing to watch. The ending is far from formulaic, and indeed, stunningly heartbreaking. The movie carries off a very strong feel that I have difficulty explaining, but it's well worth experiencing.

This movie is not about the evils of science. It is about the triumphs and failures of the human spirit. I know that some people think that this is an old and thus "cheesy" message, but it was played beautifully enough that I just don't care.