New Reviews: Splice & Please Give

Dicey Science

Every once in a while, there comes along a film that seems to gather admiration simply because it is very different from the rest of the films out in the marketplace. There's a lot of people who think that a film's attempt to go against the grain is something so rarely seen that it should be treasured. I do believe that when a filmmaker attempts to address some issue in a provocative and extraordinary way, he or she should be given that credit. However, I do not aspire to the belief that just because something is different, that automatically means it's good. This film sure is good, but is surely also far away from good.

Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley play a pair of couple scientists on the verge of a breakthrough in their field of genetic engineering. After making a purely animal hybrid, they want to go to the next step with human testing. But their funding gets cut so the current specimens can be analyzed. Instead of taking the sane approach, these two geniuses decide to go rouge and inject human DNA into the equation anyway. What is born is a mutated animal that starts looking like a girl and given the name Dren (Nerd spelled backward). And Dren is not all she seems to be.

Director and co-writer Vincenzo Natali has been praised for his personal style of filmmaking, and he does give a promise at the beginning of the film to create an eerie mood that also manages to get the audience invested into that atmosphere. However, that peaks at about five minutes in, and it's all downhill from there. There is blame to go for a meandering plot, manufactured tension, little attempt to even comprehend the ridiculous science and the plot's odd catalyst. But in actuality, it is these poorly sketched out characters that is the real downfall. It's not only that these characters make one idiotic decision after another, it's that they aren't even consistent in their stupidity. Halfway through the film, these characters start behaving like different people, betraying what had been built up before and still causing them to be dumb. Such character types make it extremely difficult to buy into the atmospheric elements that Natali creates. By the time we get to a ridiculous final act, that feels like it's somewhere out of Rosemary's Baby, we're ready to give up at the point when it all dissolves into standard horror movie fare.

The cast is minimal, and with that the performances aren't very outstanding. Because you can never understand why these characters would make such stupid decisions, it makes it even harder to buy into the performances. Brody is still on probation in my book, so his phoned-in performances neither impresses nor disappoints. Polley does her best to carry most of the film's emotional anchor, but even that is spoiled by a bad character and conflicting emotions that she has to juggle. The verdict is that this is not the finest hour for either of these actors. And Delphine Chanéac, who plays the more grown up Dren, does well in her mostly mute role, but it's not a role that becomes anywhere fascinating until near the end of the film; too little, too late.

The best thing I can say about this film is that it's an interesting failure. You can certainly see a good deal of craft and creativity that went into the film, but it all gets buried underneath a ridiculous plot, mediocre acting, a muddled pace and characters that epitomize stupid with a capital dumb. It's a noble effort that comes up short, though I will give them credit for thinking outside the box on this one. What I can't give them credit for is a film that's worth seeing despite itself.

C-

Courtesy Fall

As the summer stands right now, there hasn't really been anything noteworthy to recommend. Up until this point, the only thing I good halfway recommend was Prince of Persia, and that was still a non-outstanding film. It just feels like the summers lately don't start producing until we get over the May slump and into the full swing of things. This movie is certainly evident of that. Although I can't technically call it a summer film since it was released in many other parts of the country months ago. But hey, what the hell. This is the best film of the summer so far.

The film chronicles a close knit group of dysfunctional people in a small radius in New York City. First there's Kate (Catherine Keener), an entrepreneur whose practice of buying and reselling the furniture of the recently deceased has led her into a life of warped guilt. Her mid-life-crisis husband Alex (Oliver Platt) and teen-angsty daughter Abby (Sarah Steele) add to her frustration. The family also is hovering over the apartment of an elderly woman (Ann Morgan Guilbert) who gets visits from her bickering granddaughters: the doting Rebecca (Rebecca Hall) and the antagonistic Mary (Amanda Peet).

If you're familiar with the work of Nicole Holofcener, whose last film was Friends with Money, then you'll have an idea of what this film emphasizes. Mid-life crises are abound in everyone's life as the characters humorously deal with their own quiet self-destruction set against yuppie anti-social behavior. Not every element in Holofcener's screenplay works; I think the weakest elements would be the forced and conventional sister dynamic and an eventual affair between Alex and Mary that feels like a bit of tacked on fake tension. However, there are enough times when her screenplay bursts in sprints that give way to satisfying humor and revealing drama. Fortunately, these bursts add up throughout the film, and the off story elements and flat direction eventually get a past.

Truly, this cast is terrific, and since it is vast enough, many are able to make up for some of the lack in character. The best is obviously Keener, who continues to impress me with her subtle magic that continues to make her an underrated actress. And she's able to work well with the entire cast, creating a mutual beneficial relationship. The same is said for Platt who sustains a good report with his co-stars. I admit that some of the other supporting players embody flat or one-note emotions, but these actors manage to embody them so well that I didn't even care. In fact, if you watch carefully enough, the caricature outlines around Hall, Stelle and Guilbert eventually fill out and offer a bit more to exercise.

The film does suffer from some slow spots, some ramblings in the last act, and some characters that fall flat. However, the great performances and smart writing help to elevate the film beyond the shortcomings that it offers. I was starting to write off the year as one disappointment after another, but this film gives me promise. Hopefully the rest of the year can live up to the promise.

B+