Clone (Womb)

London Film Festival Premiere: 19th October 2010

Watched on DVD: Saturday 9th March 2013

Rating: 15

Genre: Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi

Runtime: 1hr 51mins

IMDb Plot Synopsis: A woman's consuming love forces her to bear the clone of her dead beloved. From his infancy to manhood, she faces the unavoidable complexities of her controversial decision.

My Review: I knew that this would be a dark and twisted atmospheric film going into it but that didn’t stop me from being taken aback by the sheer coldness of this film. It is bleak and grey and harsh, and yet there is so much emotion, no matter how quiet or subtle, which makes it worth watching. 

With Eva Green starring, I knew it would be a little dark. She is such a fantastically intense actress and she really adds something to this film. I, like most I’m assuming, only really knew Matt Smith from Doctor Who, so it was with him that I was the most trepidatious. His role here as Thomas is completely different from The Doctor, however, but it was still difficult to completely remove him from it. It was only really though Eva Green, whom I have a huge amount of respect for, that their relationship and their story came through. 

Because it ultimately about Rebecca and Thomas, who fall in love as children and, after moving away and coming back later as an adult, are then torn apart once more when Thomas dies suddenly. I did not see that scene coming at all, which in hindsight was funny, but it really was so sudden. And it was the devastating stillness of Eva Green that made me breakdown a little. From then on she was warped with grief and so it is very understandable what happens next. If there was the technology to bring back the love of your life... well you’d definitely think about it! 

I loved how it was done in such a natural and realistic way. And despite the film having very little dialogue you could see all those thoughts running through Green’s face. It’s a taboo subject and they show this in the way that would absolutely be the case if this would happen in real life. It gets more and more morally questionable as the film goes on and the many many thoughts and questions it throws up end up making you feel somewhat uncomfortable. But that is definitely what good science-fiction is meant to do; make you question humanity and life and the morals in our society today. It can be rathe depressing to think about and that feeling reels of the screen to be honest, but that doesn’t mean to say that it isn’t important. It throws up some fascinating questions and does it in a way that is both beautiful and haunting at the same time. 

Score: 7/10