The hardest fiction to swallow in Vincenzo Natali’s provocative sci-fi thriller “Splice” may well be the youth of the research couple at the center of the story of DNA tinkering gone bad.
Clive and Elsa head a multimillion- dollar research facility. The fact that Wired magazine put the pair, played by Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley, on its cover doesn’t make it much easier.
The hipster pair seem a little too cool for geek school. How cool? Their research facility goes by the acronym N.E.R.D. They do their work splicing different species’ DNA to create new living forms while listening to indie-rock and jazz grooves. They wear black leather to meetings with the pharmaceutical honcho who funds their research (Simona Maicanescu in a suggestive, understated turn). If dragon-tattooed Lisbeth Salander weren’t so antisocial, she’d be Elsa and Clive’s pal.
Yet, once the leap is made, this tale of good and evil — and way too much know-how — keeps you thinking. Not simply pondering the ethics of bioengineering — that’s rather tired — but also looking at the moral challenges of parenthood in a tweaked context. And because Natali plays with questions — but doesn’t settle on answers — “Splice” raises uncomfortable gender notions it doesn’t resolve.
After successfully engineering a male and female of a species, the cocksure duo get upended when the deep-pocketed corporation wants them to shift their research goals.
No more splicing. Which leads to one more clandestine splice. This time they use human DNA.
When the creature, designated H-50, arrives, she’s scary — not least because Elsa’s in the lab alone and can hear something scurrying and we’ve all seen “Alien.”
More telling: The creature is frightened. She tries to flee. She peeks out from toppled shelving. She looks like a trapped, hairless rabbit shaking on baby ostrich legs. Natali and creature- effects guy Howard Berger create a being both unnerving and sympathetic.
Fred and Ginger were the critters that Elsa and Clive initially trotted out for investors. Those gelatinous- looking beings have nothing on “Dren,” as Elsa names her.
As she ages, she develops a preternaturally lovely face. Her body suggests not so much an animal amalgam as it does a meeting of angel and demon. Newcomer Delphine Chaneac’s approach to the character elicits tenderness and suspicion. Each is deserved.
What makes “Splice” morally compelling isn’t the bioethics quandaries it raises so much as the way it delves into parenthood.
Dren grows at such an accelerated rate, Elsa and Clive get a time-lapse lesson in parental bonding, discipline, teen rebellion. Alas, it’s not a lesson they should have undertaken.
“Splice”
R for disturbing elements including strong sexuality, nudity, sci-fi violence and language. 1 hour, 44 minutes. Directed by Vincenzo Natali; written by Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor; photography by Tetsuo Nagata; starring Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, Delphine Chaneac. Opens today at area theaters.
