SPLICE review
SPLICE review
Aug 19
Splice is unsure of itself from the opening frame. The opening credits are distracting, redundant, and poorly rendered – symptoms of which the rest of the movie is sadly guilty, too. There are some interesting themes floating around in the script, but director Vincenzo Natali (Cube) doesn’t quite know which ones to focus on, which ones to push into the background, and which ones to cut entirely.
The characters are unsympathetic and hurt the plot more than they should. The two main characters, played by a solid Adrien Brody and a patchy Sarah Polley, are inconsistent in their actions and completely mysterious in their motivations. For a small-scale sci-fi that focuses more on character than action, this is bad news.
The idea of genetic experimentation is treated inconsistently as well. As part of the film’s back-story, scientists magically combine DNA from various barnyard animals to create an amorphous blob that serves as a medicinal protein factory; creating a locomotive organism from bits and pieces of various other organism is pushing the envelope of plausibility as it is, but then, when the scientists add just one sequence of human DNA into the mix, the result miraculously looks 99% human – it’s easy enough to forgive some storytelling liberties, but Dren’s human appearance is a bit too much of a stretch for me.
Also ridiculous is the “she ages days in minutes” device slapped onto Dren. For the first half of the movie, she’s shown in various stages of development, from infant to adolescent, but then, about halfway through, Dren’s supernatural ageing conveniently halts at just the right level of development for Adrien Brody’s character to find her sexually attractive.
It’s shortcuts like this – jumping from amorphous blobs to human forms, dropping the rapid growth idea when it becomes inconvenient – that betray Splice for what it is. It’s clear that the story-writers (director Vincenzo Natali, along with Antoinette Terry Bryant) had a couple of half-decent third-act ideas, but had no idea how to build a supporting first and second act to get there.
A dark streak permeates the plot, an aspect that probably would have helped the film if it had stronger characters, but in reality serves to alienate the audience from what little good Splice has to offer. Film classifications should probably warn of rape scenes, too, especially when such deeply traumatic experiences are treated as glibly as they are in Splice. Make no mistake, Splice is an ugly film.
For the first half or so, before the film completely runs off the rails, the plot is mildly engaging. There are quite a few different themes going on at once, but, thanks to the film’s leisurely pace, they never seem cluttered or confusing. It’s a shame that none of them pays off properly, but, while it lasts, the film’s first half is relatively enjoyable.
But when the second half kicks in, it all gets a bit silly. Unsure of how to deal with underdeveloped side-characters who know too much, the script simply has them killed. Unsure of how to give one of the central characters strong motivation, the film spends too long on a subplot / back-story that has no direct effect on the action. Unsure of how to underline Dren’s alienness, the script throws a couple of goofy-looking insect wings onto her arms. And then it gets really ridiculous towards the end.
The script’s biggest crime, though, is its uncertainty in dealing with Dren. Despite looking 99% human and displaying cognitive linguistic ability, the script prevents her from speaking, probably to emphasise her non-humanness. Either too lazy to follow through on the plot idea, or mistakenly enamoured of their characters, the screenwriters opt to trap Dren in the family barn, hidden from public view, rather than show her to the world and gauge the reaction.
If they’d followed through on that idea, the film could have become more like the Frankenstein story it’s already channelling, and more compelling as a drama. If Dren had become a sought-after celebrity, a curiosity and a wonder of science, maybe then the characters’ in-fighting and jealousy could have played out in an interesting way. As it is, the worst thing that can happen to the main characters is that they could die, and as far as the audience is concerned, that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
The script needed more work before going into production; that much is clear. Performances could have been tightened, too, as quite a few of them are weak or one-dimensional; Dren especially seems awkwardly over-the-top at times. The plot, too, could have done with a major overhaul, and the characters could have been represented in a more consistent light.
Nevertheless, there is – somewhere – a half-decent premise in Splice. While the ethical implications of cloning are largely glossed over by the script, it’s enough to get the audience thinking. The dark Oedipal / Freudian themes alluded to, and the clothes-off sexy-time promised by the trailers, might titillate some. But I think most people will find Splice too bitter a pill to swallow, too ugly an experience to enjoy, and too hollow a film to watch more than once – and that’s just about the worst thing you can say about a movie: that you’ll never watch it again. It’s a shame, because Splice was almost interesting – almost.
Splice
