20140611: SciFi Review--Splice

Splice

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Canadian/French live action feature length film, 2009, rated R, 104 minutes, horror, sci-fi.
2. IMDB: 5.8/10.0 from 68,173 audience ratings.  Estimated budget, 26 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 74% on the meter; 37% liked it from 250,630 audience ratings.
4. I saw this film on the Syfy network, instead of my usual sources.  This took 150 minutes.
5. Directed by Vincenzo Natali, screenplay by Vincenzo Natali and Antoinette Terry.
6. Starring: Adrian Brody as Clive Nicoli, Sarah Polley as Elsa Kast, Delphine Chaneac as Dren, Brandon McGibbon as Gavin Nicoli, Simona Maicanescu as Joan Chorot, David Hewlett as William Barlow.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Clive and Elsa have good success as gene splicers, and have produced two low level creatures, Fred and Ginger.  All seems good at the beginning of the film.


2. Joan, the leader of the company supporting their research, is pleased with their results to date.  However, she needs (in the business sense) their research to take a different trajectory that will yield profits almost immediately.  This direction is a bit boring scientifically, but will help the corporation's bottom line.


3. Clive and Elsa are not openly insubordinate, but decide to pursue their desired research, which is to create a higher order pair than Fred and Ginger.  While discussing having children one night, the couple get an alarm message from their lab.  They rush over to find that the their experiment has grown at a much faster rate than expected.  The living mass is in danger of dying.  While attempting to save it, Elsa gets bitten.  The experiment is saved, but the pair see that they have to go into full secrecy mode.


4. As the spliced together being grows, their project manager, Barlow, orders their lab re-purposed to be used for research for Joan's new directive.  Clive and Elsa move the creature to a basement area that is little used.  As time moves on, Barlow has this area re-purposed as well, and the creature is moved to the farm where Elsa grew up.  By this time, the creature can walk upright, has learned to spell a bit, and has shown itself to be amphibious.  Elsa names it 'Dren' since the creature had used scrabble tiles to call her a nerd.


5. While the pair deal with Dren's growing up, Joan needs a demo for her investors.  She trots out her A-team, Clive and Elsa, who hope to show the usual pleasant antics of Fred and Ginger.  Clive's brother Gavin has been caring for Fred and Ginger while Clive and Elsa have been absorbed with Dren.  Gavin learns of Dren when he was following his brother; she almost kills him.  Gavin misses that Ginger had changed sex, female to male, before the demo, which is an absolute disaster.


6. Joan has angry investors on her hands, while Barlow is enraged at lack of results. Meanwhile, Clive and Elsa are still knee-deep in dealing with the growing Dren, who is still female.


7. The pair face dilemmas.  Is Dren an experiment, or is she their child?  Moving to the farm brings up all sorts of memories of mother-daughter interactions in Elsa; this creates issues with Dren.  They have invested all sorts of time in Dren, but this is not the work requested.  Barlow grows suspicious, and will eventually sniff things out.  What they have done is revolutionary, but also illegal.  Should they present it anyway? 


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Illegal research brings a world of problems.
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 Mostly fine, but quite a few sections were just too dark to make anything out.


2. Sound: 8/10 No problems.


3. Acting: 9/10 I liked the performances of all the six primary actors.


4. Screenplay: 9/10 There are quite a number of stupid decisions made by the protagonists.  On the other hand, these decisions drive the plot.  The many moral quandaries evoked were interesting to watch unfold.  The ending was one of the most fitting I've seen in a while.