GATTACA

As a boy, Vincent Freeman discovers he is different from his younger brother Anton, a petri dish baby who possesses the perfect genes for success. Where Anton is strong and tall and has perfect eyesight, Vincent is weak and sickly and wears glasses that give away his genetic inferiority. Where Anton earns his parents constant praise, encouragement and admiration, Vincent is coddled, pitied and kept home. But there is no gene for the human spirit, and Vincent finds that this is the key to changing his fate. When Vincent saves his perfect younger brother from drowning in the midst of a race, he realizes that strength doesn’t always come from the body. Meanwhile, the humiliated Anton remains silent about the whole affair, never acknowledging his brother’s triumph. Ready to revolt against his proscribed future, Vincent leaves home, more determined than ever to pursue his dream of traveling into space, of leaving earth and all its oppressive order and assumptions behind.
Gattaca is writer-director Andrew Niccol’s vision of the future perfect. He creates a world of stunning visual and behavioral order, a world in which the most volatile human qualities like passion and faith and emotion are passé and cool perfection is the height of fashion. And into this world he brings a character who refuses to go along with the system, who finds himself on a twisting and suspenseful journey to escape his own identity. Gattaca stars Ethan Hawke (Dead Poets Society, Before Sunrise) asVincent Freeman, the young man who’s determined to break out of his imperfect genetic destiny and see his dreams come true. Uma Thurman (Dangerous Liaisons, Pulp Fiction, Batman and Robin) stars as Irene, the girl he falls in love with.