I’m amused to learn that Chanéac listened to classical music and to Goth rockers The Cure while preparing for her role. “Was this ever about science?” Clive asks. Dren also has thoughts and feelings, which “complicated” only begins to describe. Motivations are always in question, as Clive and Elsa take turns scolding each other each time a boundary is crossed, each trampled ethic and law making the reasons for the experiment seem more like excuses.
The sci-fi stuff looks like it cost five times that much to create.īut the special effects and creature design, as good as they are, don’t exceed the acting by Polley, Brody and Chanéac, who make it all seem entirely plausible and emotionally real. The budget for this Canadian film, shot in Toronto and Hamilton, was about $30 million, which is high for a Canuck movie. It’s the “whatever” stage where things really get interesting. They call their rapidly growing creation Dren (read it backwards), played by Abigail Chu as an infant and the remarkable French actress Delphine Chanéac as a fully grown … whatever. It’s a life form that results when Elsa impulsively adds some human DNA to the chicken soup of genetic material that she and Clive have been working with, and all those movies they’ve seen (and us, too) about monkeying with Mother Nature suddenly come true. The main attraction is too good to say too much about. Splice has weird creatures to spare, and they’re amongst the most convincing ever put to film. These creatures resemble something out of a porno filmmaker’s wet dream (“So cute!” Elsa trills) but they’re just the opening act for Natali’s talented design and effects team.
The couple have had a few misfires in their paired creations - ominously named Sid and Nancy and Bonnie and Clyde - but they come up with a more harmonious duo they call Fred and Ginger. It’s all about science to them - or is it? They already have family togetherness in the lab, since Clive’s brother Gavin (Brandon McGibbon) works with them. Clive would like to start a family, but Elsa only wants to grow things in a test tube. They drive an ancient Gremlin, live in a funky apartment decorated with manga posters and have only their love to keep them warm. They tolerate, barely, what Elsa and Clive really want to do, which is to create new life forms, achieved by splicing together mammalian, amphibian, avian and other non-human DNA.Įlsa and Clive (Google those names with Bride of Frankenstein) aren’t in it for the money. Their corporate masters (David Hewlett and Simona Maicanescu) just want to make a profit, and if they can help mankind in the process, great. The answers aren’t so easy, and they lead to the deliciously twisted tale of Splice, which also comes with a dangerously pointed tail.Įlsa and Clive, a young married couple still hot for each other, are “transgenic developers” for Newstead Pharmaceuticals, an international firm that goes by the motto, “Designing a Better Tomorrow.” In their lab, which has the winking acronym N.E.R.D., they use animal DNA to create organic compounds and proteins that will not only improve livestock feed, but which could lead to cures or treatments for the human diseases Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and even cancer. He asks the right questions about the moral implications of not just playing God, but also mother, father … and something else. He’s been thinking about the story for a decade, keeping pace with DNA research that is now perilously close to crossing the animal/human divide. But Splice, which Natali directed and co-wrote (with Doug Taylor and Antoinette Terry Bryant), is much more than the sum of its influences.
Toronto’s Vincenzo Natali ( Cube) owes a debt to two Davids, Cronenberg and Lynch, and also to executive producer Guillermo del Toro. What exactly is it that Polley’s Elsa and Adrien Brody’s Clive have cooked up in their gonzo genetics lab? And should they kill it, rear it or send it flowers?
#SPLICE 2 COUPLE SCENE MOVIE#
Polley wasn’t joking - this movie is rad, dad - but parentage has broader and scarier implications here than in monster movies of yore. “It’s not your daddy’s creature movie,” Sarah Polley said at the Sundance premiere of Splice, a hybrid horror that seems dangerously close to advancing reality. Starring Sarah Polley, Adrien Brody and Delphine Chanéac.
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