Review – Split
After seeing Split, I am officially claiming that M. Night Shyamalan is back. After starting off his career with a bang with The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable (200), and Signs (2002), he then became the laughing stock of cinema by consistently making uninspired, awful films, like Lady in the Pool (2006), sorry, Water, Lady in the Water, The Last Airbender (2010), and After Earth (2013).
But with Split, Shayamalan has made a movie like that of his first three. It’s a creepy and thrilling film with an intensity so tight its about ready to snap and an ending that may be the best of his career.
In Split, Kevin (James McAvoy) is a man with 23 personalities, all ranging from a nine year old named Hedwig, to an OCD solider named Dennis, to an old woman named Patricia. Kevin kidnaps three girls, Casey, Claire, and Marcia (Anya Taylor Joy, Hayley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula) to use as prey for personality number 24. simply called The Beast, who is emerging inside of Kevin. The girls try to escape from Kevin’s clutches, all while meeting his different personalities.
It’s only the first month of the year, but James McAvoy gives a performance I am going to remember all year. What a remarkable turn from the young actor. It is easily best performance in any Shyamalan movie. The idea of playing 23 characters is a tough task and one that could go terribly wrong. But McAvoy owns every personality here. The film really focuses on four of Kevin’s personalities, Hedwig, Dennis, Patricia, and Barry, a flamboyant drawer who is big into fashion and consistently visits Kevin’s shrink (Betty Buckley). All of these characters have different accents, posture, and mannerisms, from the way they smile to the way they stare. There is a really haunting scene where Barry is in the shrink’s office and she believes it is Dennis, who is banned from the shrink because of his negative influence on Kevin, that is controlling Barry. Shyamalan’s camera doesn’t cut away from McAvoy in this scene, and we see, with just a subtle shift in his chair and in his face, that we are now listening to Dennis. It is as chilling as it is brilliant.
This is Shyamalan’s strongest script since The Sixth Sense. This is far more than just a kidnapping movie. This a movie that breaks down multiple personality disorders and dissects the animalistic nature of humans. It is also really shocking, with some bloody violence, unsettling images, and tragic flashbacks about Casey’s past that adds another layer and motivation to the movie. But, what works best here is a theme that has been in a few Shyamalan movies before and that is the idea that your past skills and life events will come back to help you in some way. This was the case at the end of Signs (“Swing away, Merrill”) and in Lady in the Water, where everyone in the apartment complex was able to help using what they are good at. Here, it’s Casey who uses her experiences in hunting with her father, along with some traumatic experiences, to attempt to stay alive and not be victim to the beast. It works here better than any Shyamalan movie
When going into a Shyamalan movie, you’re expecting a twist or shocking ending (One of my buddies actually compares to a Dubstep beat-drop and calls it the M-Step). Split has one of his absolute best. I don’t want to say anything about it, but it is one of my favorite endings to any movie in a long, long time and only makes me excited for what Shyamalan has coming next.
If I was to tell you an M. Night Shyamalan movie was being released in the middle of January, you’d just laugh it off as another awful movie that plagues January every year and has plagued Shyamalan for years. But Split changes all of that. This is a really, really good movie. Not a good movie compared to January movies and not a good movie compared to Shyamalan movies. Just a very good movie overall with relentless tension, an incredible ending, and a stellar performance by James McAvoy.
MY RATING – 3.5/4
Did you see Split? What did you think? Comment below or hit me up on Twitter and Instagram, @kevflix, or on Facebook and YouTube by searching Kevflix.