So I decided to watch a bad movie.
Gattaca was directed and written in 1997 by Andrew Niccol. Who? Yeah I know. He also wrote and directed Lord of War. He and Ethan Hawke are a regular Denzel and Spike. So the movie begins and they introduce us to Ethan Hawke, who we are meant to think of as a bad boy, in a super erotic shower scene. He paints on a fake fingertip and gets through security and yeah, he looks cool doing it. Then the characters start speaking and you realize this is one of those movies where people don’t speak normally. Very, very, very scripted, which surprised me, because most blockbusters these days don’t do that anymore, instead preferring a more natural and less Shakespearean tone, and thus I was caught off guard. It was the first time I laughed out loud, but it wouldn’t be the last. So then we are forced to be confused about what we are seeing until about 20 minutes in (at least it felt that long) when Ethan starts voicing over. What? They made us watch a 10-minute shower scene with no dialogue and now they decide to explain things with a voiceover? Information is being hurled at us in a weird montage, then we are flashed back to his childhood, while he continues to voiceover all of his thoughts. My memories certainly aren’t that flawless from when I was 2 years old. He gives us his whole life, which I hate in movies, because the director is basically telling you what to think of his character, by analyzing his childhood. (The alternative being Godfather II, where a character’s childhood takes on a life of its own through a crazy thing called acting and gives you an appreciation of the character without it being imposed on you).
To make a dumb story short, we find out Ethan is genetically predisposed to have a heart failure, part of a minority group of people that are now discriminated against in society. His father loathes him and his younger brother is better in every way. He grows up to be a custodian, and is a dork, and grows increasingly unhappy about being a victim to genecism. Bad genes are the new black. Then, in the span of two minutes we get three awesome cameos, and two new main characters. Ernest Borgnine, Tony Shaloub, Gore Vidal, and love interest Uma Thurman (this rivals poison ivy as her worst role ever) and then the kicker…Jude Law?! I had no idea he was in this film, or maybe I did, and then forgot. Anyway, at the time, Monk and Ethan Hawke are talking about some dude, then they cut to whom they are talking about and it is a mute jude law in a wheelchair smoking a cigarette. I was by myself, but it didn’t stop me from laughing out loud again. Mya Rudolph is a background character for about 3 milliseconds (Did you know she is married to Paul Thomas Anderson? Did you know that Magnolia sucks?)
Ethan hawke gets some graphic (off-screen) surgery to make him 3 inches taller to take the place of jude law in society. You see he steals jude’s blood, single fingerprint (lol’d on that one too, and started to consider this a comedy), and piss. Why would jude let him do it? Because he’s crippled now and thus has no need to work in the real world, or something. Oh and ethan pays his rent. So now the plot is setup, and they immediately hit us with a whammy: a murder was committed at ethan’s new place of work (“no one has figured out my secret identity or even come close” -- Foooorrreeeeeeshadowing) and a new team comes in and investigates for foul play. OH NOES! What if they find some of ethans invalid skin or hair?! He’ll be done fer!! Well as long as they don’t catch him before he makes it into space on Friday, then he’ll be ok. Yeah, if you have or haven’t watched the movie, you won’t understand why he is going to space, so that’s an unimportant detail. Literally the next one and half hours consists of ethan cleverly escaping and outwitting blood tests and urine samples, no kidding. It’s like a thriller without the suspense. And then it hits you, Gattaca is a work made only the letters G, A, C, and T, the first letters of the four base pairs of DNA, and that particular sequence codes for 99% chance of heart disease (or maybe I just filled that part in mentally). Clever. In a rather homoerotic scene with judd and ethan, it is revealed that ethan really wants to go to space because he will feel weightless, and thus like he is in his mother’s womb. Oh his life is so bad, and you want a retroactive abortion? Black people were enslaved and you were a custodian. Slight difference. So then judd and ethan do some more gay stuff, and you find out that judd is paralyzed because he tried to commit suicide. Then some more gay stuff, you know, just looks and half smiles and cleverness. It was then that I realized I was watching a crappy, homo erotic version of minority report, and ethan hawke, ladies and gents, is no tom cruise. In addition to the obvious plot similarities to minority report, it is also very similar to that other bad movie from around this time with Christian Bale, Equilibrium, in fact now that I think about it, very similar. A guy living his whole life as another in a dystopic society (subtract eugenics and add prescription drugs as the tool of fear. I love it when Hollywood propagates mistrust of science).
I can usually measure the budget and talent of a film/director by the voice over work and sound track, and let’s just say that those things sucked. One particularly awful scene involves more gay stuff with judd and ethan, where ethan doesn’t speak for 3 minutes during a conversation and only communicates with nods and looks. And another when he has to cross a busy highway without his contacts. Hilarious.
So finally, Uma figures out Ethan ain’t Ethan, and she is aroused, segue to a disorientating upside-down beach-side sex scene. I really think that if they developed a sexual relationship with Judd and Ethan out in the open and just acknowledged it, the film would be way better, and Judd might have even received an Oscar nod, seriously, if there is only one good part of the movie, it’s him. Toward the middle/end of the film he degenerates into a sort of jilted lover, stuck in a love triangle with Ethan and Uma. He really does a brilliant job, with very little to work with. The direction definitely isn’t bad, just uninspired. If it had done anything unique besides carbon copying every bad science fiction movie in which some new technology is exploited and the world turns dystopic, I might have enjoyed it. And since Orwell introduced the genre with 1984, hardly anyone has gotten it correct, with the exception of Alfonso Cuaron in Children of Men. But that’s for another day. Gattaca is really not good enough to laud, and not bad enough to enjoy. It is trapped in between with the likes of American Gangster or X-men 3.
Although I’ve been slamming the movie, the Oscar nomination it received for art direction is definitely deserving. Dozens of movies have cartoonishly copied it, like Aeon Flux or even The Matrix, where every scene was shaded in a single color. 21 Grams comes to mind as a movie that took that and used for good, rather than evil. So the point is, I did enjoy the art direction and I will argue with anyone that it single-handedly implies a dystopia rather than a utopia (dusty oranges and yellows, and puke greens), although I wish someone had told the actual director that.
Name me one movie that Ethan Hawke has been good in. That is the ultimate flaw of gattaca. Bad score, bad voice overs, (some aerial shots of dude butt, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing) a very bad script, and worse acting (minus Jude). Ultimately, the movie concentrates too hard on the genetics aspect to ever really develop the relationship between ethan and his brother for us to care. They basically yell the morels at you by the end, yet most gratifying-ly, the film didn’t end with a stupid plot twist (like most science fiction movies this bad, Imposter anybody?), it just ended.
Just like this review.
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So I agree. Over the past few years, I've been in a state of denial with my affinity toward the realm of science fiction – one reason being that movies like this exemplify a genre that is so often inaccurately compartmentalized (see also The Core, Battlefield Earth, Jurassic Park III). Frankly, as you've obviously pointed out, this film sucks because of the filmic aspects, not because it is science fiction. Alas, I must find some way to accept my sometimes ill-fated confidence in any movie that explores the line between technology and fantasy.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, what makes a great science fiction movie great is its strict interpretation of the word "fiction". When the directors and writers attempt a not so subtle wow factor by making the film appear like science non-fiction, most (if not all) fail miserably. It is very rarely that I find this type of film enjoyable when it relates directly to something in real life. Leave that to the documentarians, my friends. I know there will be exceptions, but for the most part I want to watch science fiction so I can witness something happen that will NEVER occur in my lifetime (i.e. Alien babies tearing their way through our lower intestines aboard an isolated space ship). That is science FICTION and it reminds me that I do not have to be ashamed to embrace its tenants.
In other regards, I thought the first 60 or so minutes of Equilibrium were pretty good. I agree that it does play into a stereotype of dystopia, but I mean…it’s fucking Christian Bale kicking ass.
Also, I was probably bias toward Gattaca from the very beginning because it took me about 30 minutes before I realized that it was not an adaptation of the arcade game Galaga. True story, actually.
As per your Ethan Hawke request, I’d say he was pretty good in Explorers…but then again, he was only a child. In any case, it’s a much better science fiction movie for sure.
Here's my review, which is probably how all of my reviews will go: I liked it.
ReplyDeleteAnd then maybe I'll add something like this: I saw this and liked it when I was 11, and when it came out on Blu-ray I wanted to see if I'd still like it at 22, and I did! Maybe when I'm 33 I'll be capable of expressing dislike for a film.
I'm with Kyle on science fiction. I think bad sci-fi comes from bad science and/or bad fiction, whereas good sci-fi at least gets the fiction part right. But it doesn't have to be total fantasy. My favorite sci-fi films still feel rooted in reality, even though what's happening is out of this world. Bad science fiction tries to explain everything as if it actually connects back to science (see: Fringe). Good science fiction creates a fully-realized world where the sci-fi elements seem plausible within the universe of the film. I would argue that Alien is a "realistic" portrayal of alien babies tearing their way through our lower intestines aboard an isolated space ship. Gattaca works for me in this context, and I actually think it's a pretty good film, but you're on the mark about its flaws.
As far as Ethan Hawke goes, I usually don't like him either. He often overacts and has some annoying tendencies. Plus he's kinda fugly, but usually plays good-looking. There are a few exceptions, though. I don't necessarily know if he's good in these films, but these films were good enough to make him look good: Before The Devil Knows You're Dead, Training Day, and White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf. I think he was okay in Reality Bites, too.
Kyle, I'm still holding out for that Galaga adaptation. Maybe we should make it? I'll put that on my film projects list right after I make Gremlins 3.
I agree with Kyle regarding Explorers; child or not, he was still "acting" or whatever, and it was good. Is that a sentence?
ReplyDeleteAs far as Grant goes, I read the cereal review before this one so Im still thinking about that. I'm a lot like Grant because I tend to end up saying I like most movies.
I watched Gattaca on mushrooms and have refused to watch it ever again because it might destroy the beautiful thing I experienced whilst on said mushrooms. If you're wondering why I chose to watch Gattaca on mushrooms, I didnt. There werent very many movies to choose from, and it seemed like the best choice at the time.
Ash?