Andrew Noccol makes lovely films. It sounds a little condescending to say it like that but its the best way to describe them. He’s not made many, and his two best films (this and S1m0ne) have been his least successful, and may have contributed to the fact that he has made so few. Niccol’s first three films; Gattaca, The Truman Show (which he wrote but didn’t direct) and S1m0ne are all ‘lightweight’ sci-fi films set firmly in our world, but just outside our reality. They are all well written and have a good cast, but never really performed financially, maybe because they were so hard to market. It’s difficult to promote an intelligent non-indie film (hence the existence of ‘independent’ film studio like Fox Searchlight and Sony Pictures Classics).
Gattaca is set in a future where newborns have their blood tested to determine their genetic predispositions and therefore their lot in life. The rich can pay for their offspring to be genetically enhanced. The practice of liberal eugenics creates a society of unofficial genetic discrimination. Ethan Hawke’s character is born on the wrong side of the line, a genetic reject, so to achieve his dream of becoming an astronaut he pretends to be the genetically perfect Jude Law. A murder within the astronaut training facility puts his plan in jeopardy but luckily Ethan can rely on the help of a young Uma Thurman.
Niccol’s great achievement is to create a believable future on a small scale. Though set in the future, Gattaca has a 1930s noir look. The method of creating a world of the future by recreating the look of a past period has been done before and since; if you want to make a film set in the future, make it look like another time, even one from the past. Gattaca achieves the balance of future / retro just right. The limits of the budget are well hidden, the plot revolves around Hawke’s character trying to go into space, but there are no spaceships or anything far fetched and space aged to be seen. The best sci-fi films are often the ones with minimal props and special effects, as a result they age very well.
One possible criticism of Gattaca would be that it is slow and perhaps even boring in parts, but Mr Niccol is a man with a clear vision which he is very capable of bringing to life on screen, and if he wants to take his time that’s fine with me. If only the Studio Moneymen felt that way... but what’s this? Three new Niccol films on the horizon, ‘Im.Immortal’ sounds interesting, and typically Niccolian.
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