Ryan McNeil
Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.
The sun might shine or the clouds might lower,
but nothing could appear to me as it had done the day before.”
– Mary Shelley
SPLICE is the story of Clive and Elsa (Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley). To say they are gifted geneticists would be putting it mildly. They are rock stars in the scientific world, having already spliced together genes of several animals to create entirely new species. At the film’s outset, they feel their research has brought them to a crossroads: the point of creating a hybrid of using human DNA.
The pharmaceutical company bankrolling their work expressly tells them not to, and to get to work on more lucrative results. However, being the scientific cowboys they are, Clive and Elsa secretly do it anyway. At first it’s just to see if the can, but once they prove that they get intellectually greedy and see the experiment through to the stage of results. That result is Dren – a humanoid creature that physically grows at an extreme rate.
Now, along with putting in the required research their financiers require, Elsa and Clive are feverishly trying to keep their creation a secret. When keeping Dren at the lab no longer becomes an option, they move her to Elsa’s abandoned family farm on the outskirts of town. It’s here where they continue to face unexpected developments with Dren, and must ultimately face the repercussions of their decisions.
The character of Dren is what makes SPLICE work so well. We find ourselves caring about her in a way that we’re unfamiliar with: some strange unexplored part of our psyche between our love for pets and our love for children. Not only is she human-but-not, but the way she grows turns her into a child in an adult body. This makes the Dren complicated (and dangerous) in many ways. In short order Dren becomes physically capable, but doesn’t have the mental capacity to understand her capabilities.
Clive and Elsa discover that they have unwittingly become parents – but parents to being requiring so much more care and attention. Dren can kill as easily as blinking. However, she is missing both the human compassion, and the overall maturity to understand the gravity of taking life. In some ways, she’s akin to giving Benjamin Button a loaded gun as he inhabits a teenager’s body.
I must admit that SPLICE really left a contorted expression on my face in its final act, as the story goes to some rather twisted places. So much so, that I don’t think it could have been possible to make Dren’s only two words of dialogue any more disturbing. These unhinged scenes ultimately make the experience of watching the film truly unsettling, but is also makes it work. By this point, the film has already driven the moral question home. Now it forces the characters – and the audience – to deal with all the complications and violence of the decisions made.
That these complications are both foreseen and unforeseen is the problem with man playing God. What a film like SPLICE does best is illustrate why genetic experimentation is so touchy (Not that I staunchly pontificate for either side of the argument). The question isn’t whether or not Elsa and Clive have crossed a line; the question is once they’ve crossed one line, when are they allowed to stop crossing lines?
I found this film very strange and disturbing, yet thoroughly engaging.
– The Rant King
http://www.therantking.com
This movie's been way over spoiled for me by people ranting about the ending in the first couple lines of their post… and from that alone I'm not interested. I may give this the old cable viewing, but it looks to me like it delves into areas I just don't care to go.
I was so looking forward to Splice but ended up not loving it. The whole 'darker side of human nature' almost never works for me, though.
I think being unsettling is the complete intent here. And for that, it certainly succeeds.
Uni – I'm so sorry to hear that it's been spoiled for you! I only saw 1 trailer and even then tried to avoid it – people are talking way to much about what happens (not you though Hatter, kudos!) and even the posters are spoilery. So sad. There are so many things that worked better when they are suprizes!
@ Zach… So did I, now if you'll pardon me I'm off to check out your site.
@ Univarn… Sorry to hear that. I think anyone who gets THAT hung up on the ending missed out on a lot of the themes that this movie wants to talk about. Do still give it a watch, on dvd if not in a theatre.
@ Shannon… Strange, I didn't gravitate towards "darker human nature", but the consequences of our decisions. You didn't love it, but did you like it?
And I had an inkling about what was coming in the end given things I'd glimpsed, but I'm with you. People who talked about those details off the top of their posts deserve to be boiled in oil!
@ Aiden… Sorry man, had to delete that comment. Spoilers dude, spoilers! The movie was supposed to be about MORE than that, you weren't able to get past that?
Hmm, I'd have to say no, I didn't like it. I couldn't like it. They went past the point of no return for me and I was like "Oh, it's one of those films". I'd be happy to elaborate more next time we chat 🙂
And, even staying very spoiler free I saw some of it coming too. Not all, but some.
I agree that the film is very good. The character of Dren is a fascinating one because her very nature is stuck in some nebulous territory between animal and human.
A strange but ultimately satisfying movie picture.
I liked it. I mean, it was weird as shit, but.
God damn, now that was a freakin' awesome review. Love that last paragraph. I can't wait to see "Splice", even though from what I've heard it isn't as good as I had expected at first.
This flick has disturbed everyone to such a degree that I'm now compelled to see it, if for nothing more than the fact that it messes with you a little, and I can appreciate that for good or bad.
I actually read your whole review. Thanks for giving nothing pertinent away, been too afraid to read anything but summaries elsewhere.
I cannot wait to see this film! I have no idea when it is coming out in Australia, but I am absolutely intrigued!
@ Shannon… Yeah, I'm beginning to think that the final act is what either sells the film to people or makes them drop it entirely. And indeed we'll have to talk about it over a pint.
@ Edgar… She is such a cool character, isn't she? Following the theme of cross-genetics, she reminds me of what you'd get if you crossed Ridley Scott's Alien, Benjamin Button, and Frankenstein's monster.
@ Simon… Well said!
@ Atroxion… Thank you for that. You actually made me look at the last paragraph again, and notice a grammatical error or two. I might have made it even better now!
@ Heather… Ah! Mission Accomplished!! I tried to stay non-specific in this one since it was already ruined for me. Good to see I was able to do that and still get my point across.
Looking forward to reading your take once you see it.
@ Nicki… keep an eye out for it, it's loads of fun.
I was lucky to not have the ending blown for me then. Too many people breaking spoiler protocol.
If I haven't seen a movie I usually skim the first paragraph of a review to see how spoilerific it is. If I feel like it's a movie I want to be surprised with and there is too much to be said I just read the concluding paragraph. It was nice to read your entire review because I got a real sense of the film and at the same time it's entirely mysterious. Made me want to see it.
@ Fitz… Yeah, I'm wondering what the hell was up with that because that entire final act is pretty crucial to the film. It's not like telling people "The Titanic sinks".
Well done in avoiding the spoilage!
@ Heather… This review was actually kinda tough to write. Having read others and listened to podcasts about it after the fact, I'm left wondering if I focused on the wrong thing…but it's done now.
When I sit down to write about a film, I try to imagine what I can say to convey my feelings on a film without telling the film's entire story. Perhaps that's the formula that led to giving you something enticing, yet non-specific.
The final act broke it for me.
I finally saw it yesterday, and am still trying to wrap my brain around it. I may be fighting a losing battle.