She's Not Human... Not Entirely.
This film updates the Frankenstein trope of man creating life to the present day, and poses the question of what would happen if instead of one man, the creators were a childless husband and wife team, incubating the monster from a foetus in an artificial womb. This is an interesting angle, allowing the film-makers to address issues relating to parenthood - especially, Polley's character being the prime mover, motherhood - and allowing for an unusually wide gamut of responses, ranging from revulsion to devotion.
A neat plot device allows for a telescoping of time, and the story develops swiftly.
The story, in toto, is clearly quite fantastic. In order to keep the audience on board, the characters of the protagonists must be credible enough to drive the plot forward in an apparently inevitable succession, as inevitable as a line of falling dominoes. This is achieved pretty well, partly by scripting in certain character attributes, partly through the great casting of beak-nosed thin-as-a-rake Adrian Brody as nerdy scientist, partly through the strong grounded but intense presence of Sarah Polley, whose character is the prime mover behind most of the key plot points.
For me, the actor Sarah Polley was in fact the main attraction. In the film Go, she was really something special, giving a brave bloody-minded completely unglamorous performance, the standout performance of the film. Her IMDB entry says she is "[b]lessed with an extremely expressive face that enables directors to minimize dialog due to her uncanny ability to suggest a character's thoughts..." Exactly: her intelligence shines through.
The monster, when it comes, is very well realised, especially later on in the film. This is a crucial point: if the monster lacks credibility, the film crashes. Fortunately, the FX are good, and the portrayal of the monster is one of the high points of the whole film.
Others have criticised the finale for being too action-oriented, and dumbing down from the intelligence of the majority of the film. Maybe, but the film's final coda is pretty smart.
- Rating: Full price
- When seen: 18 Feb 2011
- Where seen: Home
- More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia
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Amendments: Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.
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