For some reason the director chose to film every scene through a tobacco-coloured filter, making it appear as though you, the viewer, were immersed in a bowl of urine, peering out at passing events. Whilst this has relevance to the plot, I did not find it a pleasant viewing experience. The whole thing was subdued with minimalist acting techniques to match the minimalist sets. Michael Nyman's music was very jolly in places but otherwise the whole film is something of a downer.
The idea, as you probably know by now, is that in the future only genetically engineered persons are cool whilst people born by natural means are in-valids. It's a very interesting topic and one well worth exploring but this film fails to do the ideas justice. It's just so cool that, in the end you don't care very much. Pity. The players are pretty good especially Ethan Hawke as the in-valid and Jude Law as the crippled valid who supplies the necessary biological material to get Ethan accepted into the right circles.
The main problem is lack of tension. Even when Ethan is being hunted down as a suspected killer the director fails to capitalise on the potential. For the odd few seconds you suspect the film is going to come alive but then it returns to plodding along towards the inevitable conclusion, letting the viewer sink further and deeper into his or her aquarium of urine. There are no car chases, nothing goes bang, crash and the sex is very subdued. Not that a film has to have sex and violence in spades but, if it doesn't, it better offer us a very good storyline, characters and plot. Gattaca doesn't.
The idea, as you probably know by now, is that in the future only genetically engineered persons are cool whilst people born by natural means are in-valids. It's a very interesting topic and one well worth exploring but this film fails to do the ideas justice. It's just so cool that, in the end you don't care very much. Pity. The players are pretty good especially Ethan Hawke as the in-valid and Jude Law as the crippled valid who supplies the necessary biological material to get Ethan accepted into the right circles.
The main problem is lack of tension. Even when Ethan is being hunted down as a suspected killer the director fails to capitalise on the potential. For the odd few seconds you suspect the film is going to come alive but then it returns to plodding along towards the inevitable conclusion, letting the viewer sink further and deeper into his or her aquarium of urine. There are no car chases, nothing goes bang, crash and the sex is very subdued. Not that a film has to have sex and violence in spades but, if it doesn't, it better offer us a very good storyline, characters and plot. Gattaca doesn't.