Every since watching Training Day, I have been itching to bust out my copy of Gattaca. I realized then that it had been years since I last watched this one. Not surprising, but the movie still holds up incredibly well. That's not a stretch given the fact that the movie takes "...in the not too distant future". I have always called Gattaca the Rudy of Space. If you think about it, in it's simplest form, both movies follow the same exact plot. Sure, Gattaca is a little more complicated in reaching the goal of traveling to Titan, the moon of Saturn. But at its core, taking a character with so many flaws and deficiencies and giving him the impossible, unattainable goal set before him, is the ultimate in perseverance.

There are so many great things to dig about Gattaca from the story, to the actors and of course the visual look and style of the film by Andrew Niccol. I love the color palette he went with. Andrew definitely is the "silent" star of the movie, but its Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law that give the film its pulse. Each one did a fantastic job in their roles. Hawke and Law definitely own their characters, but Thurman on the other hand, as good as she is here, was hard for me to constantly shake the idea that she is "The Bride". I do than with everything she is in now. Can't separate her from such an Iconic character. Anyway, I highly recommend this as a Buy. It's a Sci-Fi flick that actually makes you think. You can also see similar themes in Niccol's other film, The Truman Show.

Be on the lookout for small roles to fill out the cast. It's a who's who casting call that includes: Gore Vidal, Elias Koteas, Maya Rudolph, Blair Underwood, Ernest Borgnine, Tony Shalhoub, Alan Arkin, Dean Norris and Xander Berkeley. Speaking of actors....how long has it been since I last saw the movie? It was long enough that it wasn't until today that I was able to connect Mason  G a m b l e   from this one to Rushmore. Because Rushmore was still somewhat on my mind, I was able to easily recognize him as Young Vincent.

Sidebar:

Which is harder? Getting to the moon of Saturn or getting onto the Notre Dame Football team?

You know, they keep talking about a Twilight Zone movie and I think Andrew Niccol should be the TOP of the list to do it, even if he needs other writers, his style feels sort of PERFECT for that, classical, elegant, stylish but not overdone.. I mean, consider the business suits in the space ship.  I couldn't help but think that the entire time, this is the "HD, big-screen version" of The Twilight Zone style.

I kind of want to revisit "In Time" since it's Niccol AND shot by Roger Deakins, who did Skyfall, I think there's some subtlety in the visuals that I may have missed first time around.

I don't think they could AFFORD to have an **** of lights and buttons (or holograms, I've grown to HATE holograms), this was a pretty low budget movie, I understand.  But they used that starkness to its' advantage.