Splice

Splice Girl

[Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, Delphine Chanéac]

It's a rare treat for yours truly. Tuesday and a movie after work with the boys from the job. Since I had party preparation for the christening and first birthday party, I only managed one flick from the 4 openers. I managed to see "Killers", but had to forego "Marmaduke" and "Get Him to the Greek". "Splice" may have opened in 8th place behind the other new films and several movies going into their sophomore weekend and beyond, but "Splice" fills my one of my two genres of choice, so lets get to it.

SYNOPSIS: Elsa and Clive, two scientists successfully slicing animal and plant DNA to produce medicinal proteins, are told that their pursuits to start slicing human DNA will not be supported. Forging ahead, defying legal and moral boundaries, they create a new hybrid organism. The infant, named Dren, matures at an astonishing rate, bonding with its creators. This bond, though, soon turns deadly.

Vincenzo Natali directs and co-writes this sci-fi horror blended movie, executive produced in part by Giuillermo del Toro. Natali also wrote and directed the surprise 1997 hit "Cube", made popular for me by the SciFi (SyFy) channel. "Splice" marks Natali's first major movie release.

In "Splice", Adrien Brody stars as Clive and Sarah Polley as Elsa, two genetic scientists on the verge of solving major medical ailments, if only they were given the green light to starting using human DNA. In this story, the science is not so far fetched that the story is unbelievable. Look at the 1931 monster classic "Frankenstein", the science in that story was complete and utter fiction, but it has endured almost 80 years. In "Splice", the story ventures into such absurdity, it become comical in parts. The "Dren" effects, though, are well done, from weasel-looking infant to a strangely beautiful young woman with a toxin tipped tail and retractable wings. Delphine Chanéac works the role with perfect innocence and predatory instinct.

Both Brody and Polley make the most of their roles, notably Polley, best known to me for the "Dawn of the Dead" remake, who goes from devoted scientist to devoted mother to Dren to a woman under pressure and out of control of her "child". Brody goes from the naysayer of the pursuit of the Dren experiment to adoring father, especially after Elsa goes off the deep end. Be afraid of the bond that father and daughter share. You know the bond is coming, but when it arrives, you still find it incredulous.

There are a few obviously plot points that define the film, and make it predictable toward the end. The film is well made, if not as tight as it could have been for maximum effect. The arguments for scientific morality are intriguing, and the blurring of the lines between right and wrong is cannon fodder for post-movie discussion, but all in all the discomfort you will undoubtedly feel throughout the film will be better suited to the privacy of your own home.

Worth: Netflix