Word: paranoia
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Tapping into the post-Cold War paranoia of nuclear arms falling into unknown hands, this wellpaced but predictable action/suspense thriller doesn't ever stir a step beyond the demands of its genre. Nicole Kidman and George Clooney deliver competent if unremarkable performances as the nuclear scientist and independent-minded military officer who team up to save the world from the self-destructive tendenies of a Harvard-graduated loony. --Jonathan B. Dinerstein...
...Gattaca sucks you in visually, drawing attention away from the dramatic flaws. There's a cool, postmodern bleakness to Niccol's vision, and a deftly understated mingling of present-day genetic and computer/technological paranoia, which proves more effective than a flashier sci-fi approach would have been. Niccol also has a way with suspended images, and his most inspired moments, in fact, are purely visual: a pool of blood, spreading from an unseen source, blots the frigidly hygienic, monochromatic polish of Gattaca; a conventionally romantic evening at a piano recital turns suddenly surreal with the appearance of an immaculate...
...Creeps in this petty pace from day to day / To the last syllable of recorded time..." Whatever the intent behind this kind of performance may be, its effect is to make Macbeth appear to us not as a "tragic figure" slowly cracking under his weight of guilt, grief and paranoia, but rather as somebody enjoying a private joke...
Tapping into the post-Cold War paranoia of nuclear arms falling into unknown hands, this wellpaced but predictable action/suspense thriller doesn't ever stir a step beyond the demands of its genre. Nicole Kidman and George Clooney deliver competent if unremarkable performances as the nuclear scientist and independent-minded military officer who team up to save the world from the self-destructive tendencies of a Harvard-graduated loony...
...Thanks to the late President's paranoia ? well-justified, it seems, considering the military mutterings of "cowardice" captured on the tapes ? we have a glimpse today of one of the darkest moments in human history...