Andariel Halo Indeed this movie looks and feels low budget, no matter how they try to cover it in a thick veneer of gray and darkness, but that is not this movie's biggest flaw. The clinical tone of the film drew me in instantly, with the implication that the "first ever successfully cloned human", Elizabeth, may have some problems before it can be presented to the public. Unfortunately, this is about as far as the movie goes with its actual plot. The entire rest of the film consists of swarms of ugly Christian fanatics crying and whining about how the doctor is EVIL and the child is EVIL because GOD and JESUS. This takes up about 70% of the entire movie. Whether you agree with their idiotic views or not, the way it's strawmanned and put on display here is done with a clear sense of repugnance towards these people, allowing them to swallow up the full scope of the topic at hand while allowing for pretty much nothing else. Arguably it may be a realistic depiction of an ignorant, paranoid, anti-science bunch of people reacting with ugly violence to the unknown, but not only is this done to the detriment of the movie's pacing and overall storytelling, but it also doesn't advance beyond that. We see the anti-cloning Christian protestors, and they're anti-cloning and Christian, and that's literally it. They play no further role other than to be front and center for more than half the movie, while contributing nothing except being a nuisance to the doctor. Meanwhile, an even more interesting story is unfolding inside the doctor's house, with the subtle, never once explicitly stated implication that Elizabeth may not be the "first" cloned human. This branch of the film's story is completely smothered by the Ugly Americans Christian Protest footage that sucks the oxygen out of everything else in the film. Literally every aspect of this film suffers because so much time and attention is devoted to showing these Christian protestors and showing them in as ugly, vulgar, and violent a way as possible, with one bald idiot in particular breaking down sobbing incessantly while squealing "SHE DOESNT HAVE A SOUL! YOU DONT HAVE A SOUL!" in front of the doctor's house, before trying to attack a police officer. The main character of the doctor is one who comes across as being somewhat flat and affect-less, yet as the other plot gradually unfolds, he suddenly becomes highly intriguing as we see him show actual emotion and lose self control at one point towards the end. He gets very little else in terms of character development beyond that. The wife's story, with their kids, and the odd (nonsexual) homelife they have with two other people is one which doesn't need any further elaboration or exploration, but would at least warrant some additional time to see things through the wife's eyes more, rather than having her be just a token housewife who complains about the doctor working too much. There was a solid core of a good, suspenseful sci-fi thriller, with a near perfect tone of clinical detachment and a lack of explaining every little detail to the audience that could've put this in the same type of genre as "Primer", but more than half this film was devoted to being some sort of "Two Minute Hate" spiel against anti-science Christians that ends up swallowing up the whole movie.

MoviesRT I was hoping this would be creepy, but it was so low budget it didn't really work. And it made little sense as well.What really bothered me was all this protesting by supposed Christians who think cloning is satanic or something. Why is Hollywood so out of touch with the real world? I don't even remember anyone protesting when Planned Parenthood admitted to cutting up babies and selling their parts. In fact, they got another government grant for a billion dollars.People protesting cloning is just silly. No one would do that.And who would let this doctor take home cloned babies to keep in his house? Anyway, I was disappointed. I liked the idea, but it just fell flat.

bostianb Absolutely loved this film! This modern, smart interpretation of Frankenstein pushes the boundaries of real-world bioethics and ramifications of human cloning. Closer to God asks what would happen if we could improve our gene pool, making people smarter, stronger, better. What begins as an innocent enough measure of pushing the boundaries of science turns into an moral and ethical controversy fraught with suspension. Of course, the aftermath is explosive as one doctor pushes the science further than he is capable of handling. This film will have you on the edge of your seat as it heads towards the suspenseful conclusion. Seeing classic works revamped for modern audiences is always appreciated, and Mr. Senese's work would make Mary Shelley proud. Very impressive and well-done!

Lowbacca1977 Closer to God is a modern revamp of Frankenstein, and it somewhat straddles the genres of science-fiction and horror, or at least tries to. While there's a large attempt of things that seem scientific, I really feel like that area was so underdeveloped that I just didn't find that at all convincing, even for suspending disbelief for the purposes of a film. It's what comes of a film trying to make some pretty broad claims about science without really exploring or addressing them. The horror film aspect of it has its moments, and while I think it did a very good job of building up tension, it really seemed to fall apart when it came time to cash in on that by being a bit blunt about it, after doing a fairly good job of building up the unease and mystery.There certainly are some other interesting questions that are at least mentioned about what represents humanity and how cloning factors in, and it acknowledges a lot of issues with the ethics, philosophy, and spirituality of cloning, but it doesn't really explore or discuss those issues much. It opens the door to them, and I do give it some credit for not pushing a particular answer to those questions, but I feel like more could have been fleshed out with them.An overall slow pacing, I think it could've been made up for with stronger points, both conceptually and thematically, instead it fizzles out a bit at the end.