The Endless pool becomes a star in Gattaca

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Janet Maslin, movie critic for The New York Times, says Gattaca is "an impressively fine-tuned first feature from Andrew Niccol" and praises the film's "obsessive attention to detail." Somehow her review fails to note that Gattaca is also the Hollywood debut of the Endless Pool, though perhaps this omission can be explained by the duration of the scene -- about 8 thoroughly riveting seconds.

Set in "the not-too-distant future," according to the prologue, and named for the sinister corporate entity which is its focus, the movie is a star vehicle for Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, and a cautionary tale about genetic engineering. The triumph-of-the-human-will-over-technology conclusion is hardly novel, but neither is it heavy-handed in execution. Several of the film's human performances—especially that of Jude Law, making his own major feature debut—are affecting.

But back to the Endless Pool scene: Maslin describes the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building that serves as Gattaca's headquarters as "... a perfect reflection of the film's spare, controlled state of mind."

Just like the Endless Pool, eh, Janet? The symbolism here is obvious. And foresight—in Hollywood science fiction, anyway—is always 20-20. So is hindsight: We can't resist pointing out that the sibling rivalry forming one of the movie's major plot threads could have been greatly alleviated if both boys had had access to an Endless Pool.

 

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