Gattaca (1997)

USA Today
"...If smart sci-fi is your vial of tea, GATTACA won't disappoint..." -- 3 out of 4 stars 10/24/1997 p.6D

Entertainment Weekly
"...Corporal paranoia transforms suspense into pleasurable dread..." -- Rating: A- 05/08/1998 p.82

New York Times
"...A handsome and fully imagined work of cautionary futuristic fiction....An impressively fine-tuned first feature..." 10/24/1997 p.E18

Chicago Sun-Times
"...This is one of the smartest and most provocative of science fiction films, a thriller with ideas..." 10/24/1997 p.35

Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "Underrated, understated and gleaming with chilly intelligence." 05/01/2008 p.152

ReelViews 9 of 10
...Gattaca doesn't just function as a science fiction thriller, but as both a cautionary tale about the dangers of letting scientific ability outstrip ethics and as a morality play about the irrationality of bigotry...Andrew Niccol's oppressive future, which contains more than an element of Orwell's "Big Brother is watching" mentality, isn't just a clever backdrop against which to set a thriller. Instead, it's an integral part of the story...The average thriller, even if it's set in a faraway or futuristic world, tends to offer visceral, ephemeral excitement, and not much else. However, while Gattaca has the energy and tautness to compare with the best of those, its thought-provoking script and thematic richness elevate it to the next level. Gattaca is not a perfect motion picture (I would have appreciated a little more political background), but, at a time when so many science fiction films are dumber than dirt, it makes for a refreshing change-of-pace, and is a fine addition to the Fall movie season. - James Berardinelli
 
Eye Weekly 8 of 10
Gattaca, the latest futuristic-totalitarian-nightmare movie to come out of Hollywood, opens with the sort of contemporary twist that artists in the genre have always felt compelled to supply...Ethan Hawke plays a four-eyed genetic weakling who tries to pass himself off as one of the "valids" in an attempt to work his way up the ladder of Gattaca, a space-flight corporation, so that he can become an astronaut. He borrows stick-on finger prints and urine samples from a genetically-superior doppelganger who has been paralyzed in an accident. The initial ease of the role reversal holds out the hope that genes don't determine fate, and that even weaklings with glasses can reach for the sky, or snag a date with a gorgeous co-worker like Uma Thurman...Although a murder is added to the story, Gattaca never degenerates into a series of Demolition Man-style shoot-outs. But it also fails to develop the genuine atmosphere of oppression and decay that prevails in futuristic films about totalitarianism like Brazil or 1984. - Tom Lyons