The film centers on married couple of Brody and Polly who are bio chemists working. As the title infers, they are working on splicing, gene splicing. They create a hybrid creature that ages fast and of course shit hits the fan. It's kinda like Species but without the whole extra terrestrial element.
This was a pretty damn entertaining flick. Great performances from the two leads, good use of a mixture of practical and computer effects, well shot, and it went places I was not expecting at all. Really amazing scenes and sequences that just plain worked incredibly well. The tone of the film was also well laid out, it was serious but still left room for obvious comedy for the ridiculousness of what was happening. What made Splice so cool was that it is essentially a monster movie but risen to a much higher level by running themes of parenthood, child raising, plus a whole slew of ethical concerns mixed in.
Unlike most Hollywood films this is a very intimate story with only five speaking roles. Again this really raises the "monster movie" level of the film as it is a straight up character piece between the husband and wife and how they separately deal with raising their "child", the hybrid named Dren. The evolution of Dren is also really well done on an effects level and emotional level. Effects wise there are no flourishes as everything is used to continue the story and sell the character of Dren. You totally believe that this hybrid is a living breathing creature that totally existed unlike obvious CG characters plaguing our screens. On an emotional level there is a great change from creature to character as Dren having us connect with her plight.
Not to say there are no flaws of the film as there some of the dialog was a little weak. This was apparent especially in how Sarah Polley's character was written. Some of the things she said were to unrealistic and matter of fact, I understand why they did it to move the story along and keep it brief, but a couple lines just didn't work at all, but again, that's just me nitpicking. There character of the lab boss was pretty one dimensional which was annoying. Adding some depth to his character would have rounded out the cast a lot better. I also think the end could have taken the concept a little farther than it ended up doing.
This film also had one of the biggest "wtf" moments I have ever seen in a wide release film. (Lars Von Trier's Antichrist wins for all films) I really don't want to spoil what it is, so I won't even say. All I'll say is that I'm really glad that what happened, happened. It had great reactions from the rest of the crowd and it was equally as fun just seeing how other people reacted. I also really appreciate it in that it dared to do something different which is not done enough these days in main stream cinema.
Overall I really enjoyed Splice and would recommend it to anyone who likes Science Fiction and Horror films.
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