Splice

Year: 2009

Grade: B

Country: USA

Director: Natali

Review

weird freaking movie. seems much more in tune with japanese cinema or 70s era american cinema than it is with shrek 3, which it’s playing next to in the theater. it falls into the audacity of science subgenre of the sci-fi film. sarah polley plays one of the more aggravating women in the history of film here. she’s ostensibly a scientist, but is guided very little by the morals or norms of scientific thought. she successfully bends arguments about the greater good to satisfy her own maternal instincts and curiousity. brody, meanwhile, is a half-assed voice of reason who ultimately enables the complete downfall of the system because he’s just another horny guy.

there’s some good stuff in here about starting a family and male/female relations and humanity’s proximity to the animal world in spite of our “civilization.” of course we can’t forget the role of the corporation in this all as enabler and financier and catalyst for the shocking (but not unpredictable) denounement.

the science is pretty iffy here so some sci-fi fans won’t like it for that reason. it did a good job of keeping me tense.

Watched in theater