Okay, if you knew how to splice different species’ DNA and create new living forms how far would you take it? A reasonable answer I suppose is far enough to learn about how it lives (given that it actually works). Of course, in Splice we don’t stop there. Adrian Brody (Clive) and (the crazy) Sarah Polley (Elsa) are childless scientific engineers who are famous for their work in gene-splicing. After a successful endeavor with lab-created… blobs, they want to take it to the next level, splicing human DNA. Of course, once you mention this to the CEO of your multi-million dollar company you are shut down. Clive and Elsa decide to go all-in for one last splice, mixing human DNA into the equation, asking “What’s the worst that could happen?”
As the specimen begins to age rapidly, “days in a matter of minutes,” everything about it becomes harder to contain and this is where we start to take a turn towards Parenthood. Elsa starts to become more and more attached, giving her a name (“Dren”) and things from when she was a child. Clive then becomes the voice of reason, questioning how far this is all really going to go. Eventually, they take to raising her as their own, and Dren begins to look and act more human. Human enough to identify complex emotion towards her designers. Vincenzo Natali, the director, does a great job in conveying Dren’s humanity making sure the audience feels Elsa and Clive’s ethical predicament and let’s just say it without that, Splice doesn’t have much.
I must be honest though, Splice was a film I had been looking forward to all year. It has generated some nice buzz, something that undoubtedly made me even more excited. However, I would be lying if I told you I left the theater satisfied. In the end I expected too much from Natali’s film and was disappointed with what I had seen. Of course, Splice has moments where its debatable subject matter is what’s most important. Watching Clive and Elsa deal with the scientific repercussions of caring for a newborn human-animal hybrid are what makes the film lively and enjoyable. The film also never falls short in delivering good frightening horror and sci-fi mostly because of the eerie direction from Natali. However, Splice does suffer from a lot of corny acting and sloppy writing, which mostly all shows up towards the end. Sarah Polley was never very believable to me, there were a ton of times I found myself laughing out loud when I was sure I was supposed be solemn. At times the story can feel forced, but the film does a good enough job for the first hour to keep predictability away.
Bioethical predicament becomes the key element to the story, that is until the concept of Parenthood takes over. This is where the biggest problem with Splice lies. We move from contemplating the ethics of bioengineering (that are never really spoken of, besides in the lightest of manners: “We crossed a line”) to the challenge of parenting in the most unusual context. Director Natali toys with significant questions but never establishes answers and by the end the thought-provoking ideas never come full-circle.
