Review of Splice (2010) by Chads — 08 Jun 2010

From neonate to grown-up, Dren, the flawless handiwork of CGI animators, is never less than convincing as a living thing. When Elsa(Sarah Polley) decks out her genetic deviation that she co-created with Clive(Adrien Brody), a fellow genetic engineerist and bedmate, Dren stops being a special effect and starts to have a visceral impact on the moviegoer.

She's simulacrum like Gollum was simulacrum, a technologically alive being that intergrates itself among the animate and inanimate objects which describe the natural world, instead of announcing its "otherness" through distraction, courtesy of such typical, self-evident pixelated fakery found in so many computer-generated characters(i.

E. Jar-Jar Binks, for starters). Dren enchants. As a result, the filmmaker can go anywhere he wants to, and does, with Cronenberg-ian gusto(psycho-sexual politics, check; splatter effects, check), in which "Splice", among other things, works as a Mia Farrow-like revenge fantasy.

In "Husbands and Wives", Farrow's last movie with veteran writer/director Woody Allen(her then-lover and collaborative partner), the moviegoer feels privvy to their common-law marital discord, but the auteur stops short of full disclosure, electing not to divulge the root cause.

Allen's on-screen nebbish alter-ego, arguably the biggest nerd in all of filmdom, made his debut in Clive Donner's "What's New Pussycat?", and Clive just happens to be the name of the scientist(***SPOILER ALERT***), who initiates a sexual relationship with Dren("nerd" spelled backwards), a creature that Elsa treats like her own daughter.

Clive should know better. Hands off. Polley, a risk-taking actress(Hal Hartley's "No Such Thing": the beauty doesn't f*** the beast) and accomplished filmmaker(the elegant "Away From Her"), is probably best-known for her role as a schoolbus crash survivor in Atom Egoyan's "The Sweet Hereafter", seems perfectly suited for the subtext at hand, when you consider the reluctant ingenue's track record for kinky sex(Nicole's consensual affair with her father) and revenge(Nicole's false testimony at the accident deposition after dad calls it quits).

Since Dren enchants the moviegoer, it's perfectly plausible that Clive would fall under her spell. They dance. She has the scent of a woman. Soon after, they make love. When it's Elsa's turn, the moviegoer is hard-pressed to get a read on the mother figure's face during this incestuous coital act.

The implications are disturbing, to say the least. "Splice" is the most thought-provoking science fiction film since David Cronenberg's "Existenz".