Monday, June 7, 2010

The Perfect Combination



Man, this summer sure has been crappy for movies. Luckily relief is here in the form of a terrifying yet sexy half animal/half woman creature. No, I’m not talking about SEX AND THE CITY 2, I’m talking about SPLICE!

SPLICE is the heartwarming story of Clive and Elsa, a couple of rock n’ roll genetic engineers who say ‘fuck you’ to the man and go ahead and make their own illegal genetically engineered life form, just like I would. They create this being named Dren who’s kind of a hot chick in a freaky alien Matthew Barney sort of way, which is exactly how I would make her. Anyway, everything turns out wonderful and the world becomes a blissful utopia and the three of them walk off hand-in-hand into the sunset at the end. Music swells, roll credits.

Just kidding! That doesn’t happen at all! You’ve seen enough movies where hubris-filled scientists meddle with nature, so you know this isn’t going to go well. And SPLICE is very much in that grand tradition. The filmmakers (director Vincenzo Natali, screenwriters Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor) are very aware of that tradition, and the film is littered with references to FRANKENSTEIN, THE FLY and possibly even GREMLINS as weird as that sounds. Stuff that horror nerds like me get off on. But don’t let that turn you off from this inscrutable masterwork.

OK I know there’s been some sarcasm in this “review”, but let me get serious here for a minute. I REALLY LOVED THIS MOVIE. It is a tightly scripted, well acted, beautifully shot, suspenseful, creepy, scary, funny and thought-provoking film. It’s the rare case where a genre work satisfies the requirements of the genre while at the same time taking the story to daring and unexpected places. Basically the perfect combination. The character work here is really strong -- the two leads (Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley) have depth and are flawed and compelling, and the creature Dren (Delphine ChanĂ©ac) is both a marvel of acting and digital technology. Everything the film sets up it pays off in a satisfying way, while at the same time giving you something you didn’t think you wanted to begin with. You know, the way a good genre film should.

Look, I’m not going to lie to you. SPLICE is going to freak you out. You’re going to squirm in your seat, thinking to yourself “Are they really going there?” I’ll tell you right now that the answer to that is (SPOLIER) “Holy shit!!”. Your mom is going to be really uncomfortable at some of the plot developments so you might want to leave her at home. This is not the warmed-over familiarity Hollywood typically churns out, and if that’s what you really like but can’t admit it to yourself, you’re probably going to hate SPLICE. It’s sort of a miracle this is in theaters, and I must commend Warner Brothers for picking up this crazy independent movie and giving it a wide release. I’m sure they never would have funded it in a million years, but they had the guts to put it out there in a big way. Good job Bugs Bunny.

The point I’m trying to make here is that if you love horror, sci fi and genre work in general, you owe it to yourself to go see SPLICE in the theater. I can’t promise you’ll like it as much as I do, ‘cause I’m pretty much a weirdo and this film was genetically engineered specifically for people like me. But I do think you’re smart and I think you’ll get something out of it, even if that something is fodder for your terrible nightmares. I won’t tell you the fodder it gave me, you’ll have to see it and find out for yourself.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an experiment to perform.