Split - A

Quick Hit: M. Night Shyamalan, ever heard of him? Returns to his classic days to bring you this thriller worth watching.

Not many directors seem to have a career much like good old M. Night. He exploded onto the scene in 1999 with The Sixth Sense, one of the biggest twist endings in the history, and a great movie to boot. He followed with Unbreakable, also starring Bruce Willis, and that may be my favorite movie (definitely ​in the top echelon). From there, he increasingly went further and further from most people’s comfort zones, but he stayed true to himself, with films like Signs, The Village, and Lady in the Water. Finally, he came upon The Happening, which set off a slew of unsuccessful      films      for   the    writer/director. 

Recently, he began joining forces with Jason Blum (producer of little films like Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Hush, and Whiplash) for films. They’re both on this one, and wow, oh my.

The movie follows Kevin (James McAvoy), who suffers from DID (Dissossociative Identity Disorder). He kidnaps three young teenage girls within a few minutes of the opening. He takes them to a basement in order to be eventually sacrificed to The Beast, and there, the three girls see a few of his personalities. It turns out he has 23 of them. There’s Miss Patricia – a wound tight church lady, Denis – an OCD BA, and Hedwig, a nine year old boy longing for friends who won’t make fun of him. McAvoy’s performance is truly amazing. Using rarely anything besides wardrobe changes (and sometimes not even that), he creates distinct characters with defining personality traits. At times he does this in between lines, allowing his face and his accent to carry the load. Without his performance (maybe the best DID performance since Sybil), this movie would be nearly sunk.

According to an interview I read with Shymalan, McAvoy was allowed to run with the script in much the way he wanted to. There were times his costars and director had no idea the character tics that he would produce, and I think that was really amazing. He created true belief behind the ideas.

I state nearly because this movie also features a young up and coming star, Anya Taylor-Joy (The VVitch). She quickly proves that her stand-out performance in that movie was not a one-hit wonder fluke. Instead, she allows the camera to consistently zoom in on her almond shaped eyes, which frequently allow you to see much more emotion that an average person. She also makes believable a plot that includes many near supernatural things, and also makes some wonderful acting choices when it comes to the portrayal of emotions.

Essentially, this movie intertwines three stories in delirious, quickly spinning fashion. First, is the story of young Casey’s (Anya Taylor Joy) story, the second Kevin’s visits with the psychologist (played with grandmotherly love by Betty Buckley) and the third the story of the girls in the basement. There are times when you wonder why you need to see certain scenes, but by the end of the film, you are glad that you saw them. It provides a fleshing out of the characters and their motivations.

Probably the only thing that kept me from giving the film the highest honors I can were the performances of the other two kidnapped girls. I think that is as much on Shyamalan as on them though, because they weren’t really given much dialogue to work with. When they are acting without speaking, they do a much better job, so it’s possible that the dialogue itself was just wooden.
I can’t not talk about the final scene of the film, but keep in mind  it may ruin a nice moment.
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I stated earlier that Unbreakable is one of my favorite films. Well in the final moments of the movie, Shyamalan connects this film with that one. He allows his main character from Unbreakable to make a cameo in this one, essentially setting up a possible crossover and showdown between the Beast and     David.   There   may    be 

nothing to come of this – it may just be fan service to geeky guys like me, but when I heard the girl in the diner say “16 years ago”, I knew what was coming and my heart grew three sizes that day.

Overall, Split does all the things a great movie should. It provides you with an award worthy acting performance, it keeps you in the story, and it leaves you wanting more. I really enjoyed the film and think most other people will as well. I’m giving it an “A”.

For more on this, check out IMDB.