Splice

[This is on at the Festival, I saw it at a different screening.]

This is a damn fine movie. Splice is about scientists doing things because they can. [I've often held to the principle of "if it can be done, it will be done" when it comes to science.]

Clive and Elsa are scientists that combine DNA from all sorts of different animals, and create... blobby alien things that hold amazingly useful medicinal compounds. Cool! Then they go the next step and "splice" in DNA from the most dangerous animal of all... man. Or rather, woman. Yeah, that can't go wrong. (There's discussions around needing to generate all sorts of chemicals together to get the embryos to grow, but that doesn't explain it really... what the hey, it's a movie! Run with it!)

As ever with science movies, this is ultimately more about the procreative urge of women and how men and women get on differently with children, and how a third person can really break up the dynamic of a couple... (there were a few moments when I simply thought "jealous much?".)

Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley and Delphine Chanéac completely carrying the movie, making it a fascinating set of performances to watch. Brandon McGibbon really looks like Adrien's brother, Simona Maïcanescu is familiar as French Woman in Power (hmm... she's also in something called Dante 01... I want to see that now!), and, hey, look, it's David Hewlett!

Very good film, go check it out!


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