‘Splice’ is smart, creepy entertainment

I was fairly unsure of what to make of Splice before I hit Play on my DVD player. It stars an Academy Award winner (Adrien Brody) and an indie favorite (Sarah Polley). It deals with cloning and genetic splicing. The movie’s commercials billed it as a pseudo-horror film with perhaps some ethical and moral undertones. What to make of this 104-minute flick?

It turns out there is much to make of the sci-fi film. It’s beyond smart and clever, and although it comes dangerously close to falling into a few cinematic traps, it steers clear and keeps its head above the water.

We follow Clive Nicoli (Brody, of The Pianist and Summer of Sam fame) and his wife, Elsa Kast (Polley, of Dawn of the Dead and Go fame), two geneticists who are the front line of the global cloning race. They have already successfully created a new species: a large worm-like animal that is utterly gross. The scientists both believe the next logical step is to start messing around with human genes, but the company they work for would rather market their past success on a larger scale.

The forward-thinking couple is at a crossroads: Do they continue on with technology they have already accomplished, or do they break from the company and start discovering new ways of bringing humans into the genetic debate?

Clive and Elsa decide the latter (this is a movie, after all), so they set up a basement laboratory and begin their creation. What eventually emerges is a strange amalgam of human and amphibian (maybe with some avian thrown in as well). They call her Dren (Nerd spelled backward) and begin to love her like the daughter they always wanted.

Of course, a few things start to go wrong, and the secret is leaked. Eventually all hell breaks loose. This is when Splice comes close, but never too close, to being standard Hollywood fare.

Delphine Chanéac plays Dren, and she proves to be quite the character. She starts off as a little girl and then quickly ages within a few days. Eventually she becomes an alluring woman, still with funky eyes and an off-kilter head, but intoxicating to Clive. The CGI for the character is impressive, reminding audience members of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings.

Splice is essentially a new spin on the old Frankenstein story. The creators are unsure of what to do with the created. There’s even a scene where the scientists reveal their findings before a crowd of journalists like old monster movies.

What makes Splice so prescient for a 2011 audience is that it delves deep into issues of ethics in the science field and how far is too far. There’s also interesting situations where gender comes into play, and what happens when secrecy gets out of hand. For a small film, Splice packs a big punch.

It’s finely focused on Clive, Elsa and Dren. There are few supporting characters, and most of the scenes simply exist in the company of these three main players. It’s almost like a play with few scene changes or set pieces.

Vincenzo Natali directed and wrote the piece, and it was apparently in development for some time. It wasn’t a huge hit in the United States, after first premiering in Canada, but there should be an audience for such a smart science fiction tale. Its creepiness is earned, and thankfully it’s not another alien bloodfest or scare-a-minute feature. It has a real backbone, even if that backbone is genetically modified.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Splice
• 2010
• Directed by Vincenzo Natali
• Written by Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor; based on a story by Natali and Bryant
• Starring Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley and Delphine Chanéac
• Running time: 104 minutes
• Rated R for disturbing elements including strong sexuality, nudity, sci-fi violence and language
• Rating:

Revised