Yeah, Sorry About That

Wasn't my intention to not post over the weekend. the crew I'm working with are living in two houses 10 miles apart, but we only have one of those mobile modem things, and they had it over the weekend. It was supposed to be returned sometime Saturday, obviously that didn't happen. Plus, the library was only open for 3 hours Saturday, and I was working through those hours. That library's a real Mickey Mouse operation, I tells ya. Thus ends the excuses portion of the post.

Before I watched Gattaca, I assumed it was some sci-fi monster movie (probably confusing it with Gamera), but it's about Vincent's (Ethan Hawke) attempts to realize his dreams, in spite of not being genetically engineered, which is a major detriment in his society. So a doctor introduces him to a wheelchair-bound former Olympic athlete (Jude Law) who was genetically engineered, who provides Vincent with various samples necessary to convince the authorities he is a nearly perfect genetic specimen who should absolutely be sent on a mission to Saturn's moon Titan. A murder occurs, which brings heightened scrutiny, and Vincent develops a relationship with another member of the program, Irene (Uma Thurman), which complicates things a bit more. There'll probably be some spoilers beyond this point, if you require a warning for a 14 year old movie.

The thing that impresses me about the film is how consistently it defied my expectations. I originally felt sure Irene's apparent attraction was a ruse, that she was jealous of Vincent's success, and was looking for a certain sample to give her something to discredit him. Wouldn't that have been an ugly message, a woman using sex to ruin a man's dreams and aspirations. Fortunately, it didn't go that way. I kept thinking that Vincent's desperation as the launch date grew closer was going to cost him. Not in the sense he would be found out, or arrested for the murder, but that his predicted genetic issues would catch up with him. He keeps pushing himself in ways I thought would come back to bite him, but the movie avoids that sort of depressing, predeterministic ending.

I also thought Jerome (Jude Law) was possibly going to wreck things, because he seemed to be growing more erratic as the end of their partnership grew closer. he admits at one point that even though he designed to be a great swimmer, the best he could do was second place. Vincent is coming closer to realizing his dream than Jerome did his, and maybe that was pissing Jerome off, especially since Vincent couldn't do it without him.

Ultimately, none of my fears were realized, so hooray for that. Probably that sort of ending would have gone against what Andrew Nicol was driving at. There's a sequence I found interesting that may be part of that. Vincent is at Gattaca, doing some treadmill work while they monitor his heart (they're actually reading a recording of Jerome's nearly perfect heart as he pushed his wheelchair on the treadmill). The police are nosing around, talking to the Director. The Director says something to the effect that they measure the potential of all their astronauts, and that no one can exceed their potential. If someone appears to have done so, then what's actually happened is they (meaning the Director, society, everyone) failed to measure it properly. Through all this, Vincent runs on the treadmill, with a heart everyone says should have given out already.

I don't know whether Nicol's making the point that Vincent is an example of their failure to measure potential correctly, or that it is possible to exceed one's potential. I'd guess the second, since we're shown how hard Vincent works to get to this point, exactly how much pain he was willing to tolerate. It's Jerome's perfect heartbeat the technicians see on their machines, but it's Vincent's supposedly defective one that keeps him going at an impressive, steady pace. You could argue though that a person's determination is part of their potential, but a part that can't be measured by a genetic screening at birth, because it's formed over a lifetime of experience. Your call.

One other little scene I liked. When the whole scheme nearly blows up, and Jerome has to play himself for an audience again, he and Irene share a little kiss. It isn't that she goes to kiss his forehead, and he tilts his head back so they lock lips. I expect that from Jerome. It's how as she moves off to sit next to him, Jerome reaches out and takes hold of her hand, then maintains that contact through the meeting with the cop. It said something about Jerome, the life he lead before and after meeting Vincent. He hasn't had a lot of contact with people, and probably nothing quite like what was growing between Irene and Vincent. He wanted to be part of it, have that connection himself.