MOVIE REVIEW: Splice (2010)

Splice is a modern-day retelling of Frankenstein with refreshingly contemporary sci-fi trimmings. Not a straight-up horror film, as the previews may suggest, this is more of a cautionary drama that has some thrilling moments. There's even a hint of eroticism that crossed my mind as extremely bizarre. How this movie made it's way into the mainstream, I have no idea. Apparently, it was made in Canada. Go figure, at least someone across the border has more creativity in the film industry these days than Hollywood does. Splice is a monster parable that is something we've probably already seen once before, but I appreciated it's mature and edgy nods to modern science.

Clive and Elsa are a couple, who work for a big pharmaceutical company as geneticists, specialize in splicing animal DNA to create new organisms. When the company denies the Elsa's request to experiment with human DNA, she performs the work on her own and incognito. The result is "Dren", a part-human, part-chimera-like-creature. Her other ancestry is never explicitly established, but she bears special traits across different species that figure interestingly into the plot. Clive frequently butts heads with Elsa over her protective, motherly care over Dren, whom he generally regards as a mistake that must be vanquished. But as Dren matures, she begins to have thoughts of her own.

While the plot is not too complex, it glosses over it's cliches and predictability with some interesting themes. In today's world of genetic testing and stem-cell research, this is an interesting parable that probably explores the case against experimentation in a very extreme manner. The acting is very good and I felt the characterizations were very well-thought out. The very ending did bother me, quite a bit though. Did the pharmaceutical company really manage to cover up the consequences of Dren? How did Elsa manage to convince the company of her ultimate goal when she was already lambasted by the executive board? I wished that they didn't gloss these things over, but I guess they just had to ignore these things in order to set everyone up for a sequel. Regardless, I enjoyed the film, it isn't perfect, but it did the trick for what I was in the mood for.

7/10

Peace,
- Jon