Monday's Movie Review - Splice.

Our rating: **** (4 Stars)

This film was intriguing. After weeks of watching far too many depressingly over simplified romcom's a film about genetic engineering and the world full of questions over the morality of science was a welcome relief.

The premise of the film is based around a couple of young hotshot genetic scientists working for a private corporation developing synthetic proteins for use in vaccines and medicines, both for animals and eventually humans. They get into a spot of hot water when the decide to speed things along, skip a few steps and just splice some human dna into one of the creatures they manufacture.
The outcome is predictably dire, with the creature they create turning around and biting the hand that feeds so to speak.

The way in which this complex topic is handled is with subtlety, the effects are held to a minimum, and thankfully they chose to use makeup to create the humanised "monster" rather than going with a full CGI option. This gives the character a real depth of human emotion, sincerity and believability that has become missing in heavily computer generated films.

The film has an "independent production" feel about it although it stars Hollywood medium weight Adrien Brody, and is well brilliantly executed in terms of special effects and set design. The extra budget has helped a great deal.

The film is directed by Vincenzo Natali, the same guy that directed cult classic CUBE.

This is a brilliant film for it's genre and well worth a deeper look. I loved it and would happily watch it again, where I am sure I would pick up some things that I missed and understand the nuances of the story even more. Thoroughly recommend it.

It is one of those films that sticks with you. After watching it several days ago it is still playing on my mind, is it reasonable to think that right now there are scientists out there currently engaging in this kind of research.

From the magic oracle Wikipedia:

Splice was written by director Vincenzo Natali and screenwriters Doug Taylor and Antoinette Terry Bryant. The script was originally meant to follow up Natali's Cube (1997), but the budget and restricted technology hindered the project. In 2007, the project entered active development as a 75% Canadian and 25% French co-production, receiving a budget of $26 million. The director described the film: "Splice is very much about our genetic future and the way science is catching up with much of the fiction out there. [This] is a serious film and an emotional one. And there's sex... Very unconventional sex. The centerpiece of the movie is a creature which goes through a dramatic evolutionary process. The goal is to create something shocking but also very subtle and completely believable."

In October 2007, actors Brody and Polley were cast into the lead roles. Production began the following November in Toronto, Ontario. It was aided by Telefilm Canada's funding of US$2.5 million. Filming took place in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario and concluded in February 2008.

In an interview, when asked if there would be any sequels, Natali responded "I don't think so. It could happen, but it would have required the movie to make a lot of money in the States, but even though the ending of the film appears to be setting up a sequel that was never my intention. All of my films end with a question, and somewhat ambiguously, and they always imply the beginning of another story, I like to leave the audience with something to ponder."

Overall the film was made with a production budget of just USD$26 million, and with the figures we found, seems to have generated just about that much in Box Office sales around the world. It received a generally positive response from critics and picked up a couple of awards along the way, mainly for the special effects work which is nicely integrated.

Here is a great interview with the co star Sarah Polley abouty the movie and the process.

If you have not seen Cube, this is one of my all time fav's for this kind of genre.
Amazing movie, full of suspense, anxiety and raw emotion, ontop of a story that is slightly twisted.