- Dir: Vincenzo Natali
- Writers: Vincenzo Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant & Doug Taylor
- Starring: Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, & Delphine Chaneac
"Splice" is about young scientists Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley), who have, through genetic splicing, created two male and female composite creatures that carry an important protein that has the potential to cure disease. Unfortunately, the CEOs of the pharmaceutical company that they work for refuse to let them go ahead with human splicing, as they only want the protein, and they believe the technology is not yet sophisticated enough to handle human splicing. So, in defiance of their superiors, they go ahead and splice several animals with human female DNA, creating a hybrid that ages rapidly into a young chimera, which they name Dren (Delphine Chaneac). Unfortunately, Dren quickly becomes unstable, and the stress of having to handle and hide their experiment from the world creates rifts among the two young scientists.
Despite what the marketing may have you think, the film is actually far from the gory, sci-fi slasher that the trailers depict it as. No more than 3 or 4 people die in the film, and gore is extremely limited. Instead, the film is smart and sleek, and is alternately a fun popcorn movie and a thought provoking sci-fi movie. Watching the growth of Dren is fascinating, and the toll that she takes on Elsa and Clive's relationship is well-written and believable. Of course, a big part of this goes to Brody and Polley, who have great chemistry together and are a convincing couple.
Surprisingly, the film is very character-driven, choosing to focus more on the relationships between Dren, Clive, and Elsa, rather than exploring it's plot. I'm okay with that, as it's nice to see a sci-fi/horror film that can balance a creepy atmosphere with interesting, complex characters. While Clive is a little bit humdrum and his character keeps flip-flopping throughout the film, Elsa, and especially Dren, are emotional, thoughtful characters, and I genuinely cared about what would happen to them.
I really have to give props to Delphine Chaneac for infusing Dren with a quiet curiosity and a strikingly convincing emotional core. Rather than treating her as a simple monster, we're shown that she has feelings and wants, and she often has to face complex and challenging emotions, just like a human. However, Elsa and Clive simply treat her as a specimen, an experiment in their own vanity, and we're forced to question the moral right of keeping something like Dren in confinement. And, unlike most actors or actresses required to play alien creatures with an emotional core, Chaneac's acting is never over the top or schmaltzy, and the special effects only augment her performance, rather than completely dominate it. She's given just enough CGI to make her look like the hybrid she's supposed to, but the effects aren't the centerpiece of the film and they don't take her over so as to circumvent her acting, unlike the motion-captured mess that is "Avatar".
Likewise, Polley keeps the character of Elsa subtle as well, despite some scenes where she won't stop crying loudly and annoyingly. She starts out treating Dren as a kind of surrogate child, babying her and refusing to confront her actions. It's only when Dren attacks her for the first time that she is shaken out of this mindset and begins treating Dren not as a child, but as an experiment of her own design. Her character is well-written, and the psychology of her relationship with Dren is handled well, so as to draw us in and intrigue us.
One of the things that also surprised me about the film is some of the unflinching sexuality shown in it. There is some extremely unconventional sex about two-thirds of the way through the movie. I don't want to give anything away, but I WILL say that it involves Dren. It's awkward, strange, and uncomfortable, and I love Natali for putting it in. So many science fiction stories are unwilling to deal with unconventional sex, but people like me always wonder about it. I mean, in universes featuring strange alien creatures, and in this film, featuring a genetically spliced human/chimera thing, surely stuff like that must come up?
Well, Natali doesn't back down, you get to see practically everything, and this only raises more questions for the viewer. Unfortunately, I can't expound on this statement without ruining the film. I will say that it's great that a film like this, with such strange, eccentric things in it, can get such a high budget and a nationwide release. We should release more unconventional films like this, that force us to confront ideas that we find gross, or strange, or awkward. But, I digress.
Another thing that I really liked about the film was it's atmosphere. While the film isn't necessarily scary, it's suspenseful, and it's beautifully shot by Tetsuo Nagata. The film uses a blue-tinted, washed out color palette, which reflects the cold, calculating personalities of the scientists that inhabit the film. Several long, static shots are also used for building atmosphere and for uncomfortable emotional shots, which works perfectly. The film looks sleek and slightly futuristic, but not beyond the point that it seems overly fantastical, and it's not so overcome with style that it's blue color palette starts to take over the entire screen, like the "Underworld" films.
However, the film isn't perfect. The secondary characters don't serve much of a purpose other than to scold and berate the main characters, but the central problem with the film is that it doesn't expand much beyond it's concept, and the plot itself is slightly flimsy. As Dren grows and develops we learn a lot about her and her "family", and a lot of interesting questions are raised, but the final act of the film devolves into a senseless action-fest, the ending feels a bit contrived, and the science in the film seems a little shaky. Basically, it never really breaks beyond it's horror trappings.
But while there are simultaneously a lot of flaws with the film and a lot of good things about the film, I can't seem to really form a strong opinion on either side. "Splice" is fun, strange, and very well-acted, but as a whole, it's just not amazing me. I'd recommend it, but tentatively. Unlike the perfect blend of sci-fi and action that was "District 9", "Splice" is very uneven. The film may divide you, you may hate it or you may love it, but me? I'm somewhere in the middle.
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