Director: Billy Senese
Writer: Billy Senese (Screenplay)
Starring: Jeremy Childs, Shelean Newman, Shannon Hoppe, David Alford, Isaac Disney
Plot: A genetic scientist successfully clones the first human being, a baby girl named Elizabeth, but his work is soon threatened by a dark secret, a secret that threatens to destroy everything and everyone precious to him.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: God versus Science Again
Story: Closer to God starts with the birth of a new baby the first baby born by cloning but Dr Victor Reed (Childs), he along with his collogues have to look to deal with the consequences ones news of this baby comes out to the public. Victor lives with his wife Claire and their two daughters as well as couple who live and help around the house Richard (Alford) & Mary (Newman).
We learn that Richard & Mary have a child Ethan who has difficulties and Victor is his doctor, he has a habit of constantly banging. Meanwhile Victor brings his cloned baby Elizabeth home for safety but as things continue we see the morale dilemma come to the front where we see specialist decide whether clone is good or bad, using the good arguments. As the protests increases Victor’s past will come back to haunt him with a deadly consequences as we learn the true identity of Ethan.
Closer to God puts us into the situation about what is right and wrong about cloning, which is a good idea to give us the audience to question. I personally don’t know where I would stand on the argument but I didn’t like how we see such aggressive protesting. On another negative I didn’t like how we didn’t learn of the side effects we only see the final results with the original clone. The film did a very good job at leaving us asking morale questions but in the final quarter of the film it just got lost trying to make everything the clone a Frankenstein monster which is really didn’t need to be. I do feel this story was going places but ended to suddenly ruining the clever build up. (4/10)
Actor Review
Jeremy Childs: Victor is the scientist who creates the clone baby who he takes care of but also starts using his own experiments on to figure out how healthy she really is. He becomes the center of a massive public debate with opinions coming from every angle about whether he is right or wrong. Jeremy does a solid job in the leading role showing the strain of his work. (6/10)
Shelean Newman: Mary is the help of the Reed family who has her own child that cause her family trouble due to his problems, she starts to gain jealousy towards the clone baby because of how it doesn’t have any faults as she grows the resent her own child. She gives a solid performance as we see her slowly break. (6/10)
Shannon Hoppe: Claire is the wife to Victor who feels he doesn’t offer enough attention to his own children as he focus on his clone. Shannon ends up filling a generic role that doesn’t really get enough time to shine. (5/10)
Support Cast: Closer to God has a supporting cast that is filled with family, but most importantly the protesters and scientist who are for and against cloning.
Director Review: Billy Senese – Billy gives us a solid film that does a good job for the most part but ends up falling slightly flat with the ending. (5/10)
Horror: Closer to God doesn’t really use the horror until the final sequence that doesn’t really seem to fit into the film. (3/10)
Sci-Fi: Closer to God gives us a brilliant look at how the world could react to the first human clone. (9/10)
Settings: Closer to God keeps the setting very simple with one being the hospital while the rest is set in the doctors home nothing is really stand out though. (5/10)
Suggestion: Closer to God is one to try but I don’t think it will be for everyone as it never seems to stick to one genre. (Try It)
Best Part: The argument between clones being right or wrong.
Worst Part: The final sequence.
Believability: The idea of cloning is getting very close so you never know how the effects would be. (5/10)
Chances of Tears: No (0/10)
Chances of Sequel: No
Post Credits Scene: No
Similar Too: Splice
Oscar Chances: No
Runtime: 1 Hour 21 Minutes
Overall: Frankenstein the Clone edition
Rating
