Splice

Brundledren! Splice is a tricky picture to evaluate, for its ideas are superb. One could argue that it brings a new petri dish full of meddling scientists facing the consequences of their actions, while conversely it justifiably feels like a Cronenberg knock-off. Psychological discord is in abundance, with its slants on skew-whiff parenting giving the pic a dark fascination, and as unpleasant as the male fantasy angle is, it does hold a morbid interest factor. Yet come the final third the makers let things run away from them, the bonkers dangers of tampering with science giving way to daft schlock, even managing to be distasteful in the process - while the finale is a weak attempt at a "TBC" cliff hanger. Lead cast members are turning in good perfs. Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley as the meddling science couple hold court well, and Delphine Chaneac as the Chimera splicer of the piece really nails all the various emotional strands required for a tricky role. Director Vincenzo Natali has shown with Cube and Cypher he has something to offer the horror/sci-fi splinters of film, but this is a mixed bag. A film of great ideas let down by overheating the plot for shock values, while the levity inserted into the play is misguided and damaging for dramatic worth. 6/10

"Clive" (Adrien Brody) and "Elsa" (Sarah Polley) are a couple of genetic engineers charged by David Hewlett's "Barlow" with discovering an important gene that could lead to huge advances in medical science. Using a mix of human and animal DNA that have varying degrees of success before the evolution of a creature "Dren" (Delphine Chanéac) that develops more human attributes - as well as a tail with a stinger and the ability to grow wings. As we progress through this frankly rather disturbing story, we discover that "Elsa" quite literally has skin in the game as they must both seek to protect their creation from not just their employers but from her increasingly violent and lustful tendencies. I was quite interested in the underlying premise but the execution here is really poor. I never did really get why Brody was ever successful in the first place and here there is no chemistry between him and Polley; the storyline which could have been challenging and thought-provoking instead borders on the absurdly far-fetched and the ending couldn't really come quick enough as we really do struggle to reach any sort of a satisfactory conclusion - either from a personal or a scientific perspective. It does highlight the dangers of unfettered scientific experimentation but sadly in no more an entertaining fashion that we have seen many times before - more enjoyably - from Hammer Studios!