This is an interesting story to say the least. It's a sci-fi thriller that tends to jumps back and forth between adorable and just plain wrong. Splice tells the tale of two romantically involved geneticists, Clive and Elsa, that have been working on a chimeric organism capable of producing powerful drugs naturally. Obviously the drug companies are super stoked about this, but our two little rebels want to go one step further and add human DNA to the mix. Problem is that's illegal. So they add it anyway. The resulting spawn is a mix between several different animals (bat, frog, fish, some kind of insect) and human, and since Elsa is a little baby crazy at this point in her life, she/they decide to raise it like their own. Now the two have to raise this rapidly growing genetic contraband, Dren, (nerd spelled backwards) in secret while their personal and relationship struggles are brought to light and confronted. As my friend Brent pointed out after watching it, this film does a good job of playing with the standard view of what a parent child relationship is. And the combination of animal DNA allows Dren to transform from adorable to horrifying in seconds, giving the viewer some pretty good scares along the way. Director Vincenzo Natali does a great job keeping Dren's true intentions hidden throughout the different animal types, so the viewer is always guessing as to what she is thinking. And the character design is pretty amazing as well, mostly relying on make up and using computers to add the finishing touches. This is a style perfected by Guillermo Del Toro, and still my favorite way to animate the impossible in a live action flick. Then there are some times when the film gets, well, just plain wrong, on so many levels. I don’t want to give it away but don’t say I didn't warn you.
You're about to feel really really dirty.
Adrian Brody is one of my favorite actors today. Besides the fact that he looks so strange and still somehow has become a leading actor, he is still pretty damn good at what he does. And since he is a leading actor of the day, this tells me that he really loved this script and is doing this because he wants to and not because he is hard up for heroin money. I will definitely watch this again, and would recommend it to anyone who likes films that push the boundaries of what we consider normal. Not as odd as an Alejandro Jodorowsky film, but still unsettling.
7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment