Review: Splice

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Some movies are hard to dismiss for the overall quality and cheats used during the story because they are simply so brazenly ambitious they deserve acclaim for the chutzpah. Splice has all the chutzpah of groundbreaking science fiction with as much mishugas that often comes with an auteur work.

Vincent Natali isn't new to genre-bending concepts; his first screenplay and directorial debut was Cube. While Cube was not a groundbreaking film, it was a throwback to provocative sci-fi with horror elements that challenge the morality of the characters without taking the safe way out.

Splice focuses on Elsa and Clive, two rock-n-roll geneticists who make the cover of Wired and are riding high on their success of creating a new life form that produces compounds valuable to the pharmaceutical company that gave them free reign -- until now. Their ambitions curbed by corporate reality checks, but both Elsa (Sarah Polley) and Clive (Adrien Brody) chaff at the restrictions in project scope. Playing fast and loose with genetic material, including human samples, Elsa defies the new directives -- and Clive's ethical concerns, an unapproved experiment ultimately leading to nightmarish consequences. 

Natali (screenwriter as well as director) is clearly not afraid to risk offending audiences; combining human and animal DNA is not the only taboo occurring in Splice. It's as much a story about relationships and responsibility as it is about the moral minefield of playing God. Watching the progression of Elsa and Clive's relationship to their creation is an expedited journey into family as "Dren" (Delphine Chanéac) matures with astonishing speed. Like new parents after an unplanned pregnancy, Elsa and Clive go through several stages of relationship with each other and Dren. 

Neither Brody nor Polley really stretch their acting chops during the film, although Polley has some good moments as her scientific instincts fight with her maternal ones. If anyone stands out, it’s the less familiar faces. David Hewlett (Cube, Stargate: Atlantis) manages to skirt the corporate stooge caricature so common in science fiction.  And Chanéac along with Abigail Chu portray Dren with enough humanity to evoke sympathy yet inhuman enough to be unsettlingly alien. 

The story that unfolds is fascinating despite the overuse of fate-taunting lines that will make any genre film fan groan.  Unfortunately, Natali gets too ambitious, and let the story get sidetracked, making Splice as cluttered as the old barn to which Dren is relocated. With the scope of his story ending with a tawdry climax of confused genre twists, Splice is a frustrating film that could have been a masterpiece.  As it stands, Splice is unsatisfyingly unfocused up until the final scene. As frustrating as it is, any true science fiction fan and believers in ethical science should see Splice