“It’s firmly rooted in Hawke’s masterful humanity, making this less a sci-fi epic than a simple (and simply wonderful) lesson in humanity and the direction in which one hopes it’s not heading.”
Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke) has always fantasised about traveling into outer space, but is grounded by his status as a genetically inferior 'in-valid'. He decides to fight his fate by purchasing the genes of Jerome Morrow (Jude Law), a laboratory-engineered 'valid'. He assumes Jerome's DNA identity and joins the Gattaca space program, where he falls in love with Irene (Uma Thurman). An investigation into the death of a Gattaca officer (Gore Vidal, yes Gore Vidal!) complicates Vincent's plans.
Set in the not-too-distant future, Gattaca is a chillingly intelligent sci-fi character study-cum-thriller, which poses the kind of uncomfortable ethical questions which are already being asked in scientific circles today.
