Split Review
PG13: Disturbing Thematic Content and Behavior, Violence and Some Language
Universal Pictures, Blinding Edge Pictures, Blumhouse Productions
1 Hr and 57 Minutes
Cast: James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jessica Sula, Haley Lu Richardson, Betty Buckley
REVIEW: M. Night Shyamalan is back with a January movie. When you have an M. Night film released in January, you don’t know what you’re getting into. We can go all day talking about his critical failures and box office bombs from his first two blockbuster films of this decade. But recently we’ve seen him go through a back to life rebirth with his 2015 film The Visit which brought him back to a lower budget with an actual script that he wrote that is both is concise and humorous while managing to get a good twist in. And now with his newest film Split, Shyamalan has fully reborn by reclaiming his place as the smart visionary filmmaker that we used to know.
An outing takes a sinister turn for three teenage friends (Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson, and Jessica Sula) when they are kidnapped by a ruthless stranger (James McAvoy) who imprisons them in a basement apartment. But their escape plans are complicated when they realize their captor has multiple personality disorder. Now they must plot an escape without ever knowing which of his 23 personas - young, old, male, female or monstrous - they will confront on the way out.
THE GOOD: With this psychological thriller, you have Shyamalan fixing most of the elements that were criticized for being missing in his past with the first being character. The film focuses primarily on one of the three captured girls named Casey who is distant with the other two for you see having a difficult past. With the script you see Shyamalan attempting his best the develop this character in a way to make you understand why she acts differently than the other two girls that are all in the same terrifying situation. Of the three girls, the film follows her the most as you see her taking baby steps trying to escape this area. As Taylor-Joy has been the lead in many thrillers and horrors recently, it’s nice to see her deliver nothing but great performances which are also applied here. She gives a great performance being yet again another badass yet relatable mainly due to the screenplay building her character.
Besides it focusing on the three girls trying to escape, we also focus on a doctor played by Betty Buckley who the kidnapper Kevin goes to see on the daily for therapeutic sessions in one of his 23 personalities. Throughout the film you see her attempting to communicate with Kevin and analyze him which plays a larger part in the film. She’s really a character that helps the audience understand who and what Kevin is while maintaining to be a fleshed out character that serves a purpose to the story. With this being her second Shyamalan film she's developed much more than her character in The Happening and thank God she is too. Its like this was a role given to make amends for giving her the trait as that crazy lady from The Happening.
Besides character, the film’s story is written really tight. It is a very familiar concept we’ve seen with Hitchcock’s Psycho mixed with 10 Cloverfield Lane, but it is clever enough that you appreciate how many layers the story provide in order to capture genuine thrills. This is his roots of storytelling that Shyamalan built his career on and he achieves just telling a simple yet solid psychological thriller that keeps you guessing through and through. You feel for these girls and you want them to get out of this situation which leads to edge-of-your-seat pulse-pounding sequences that never seem forced. Even with his filmmaking, it’s cinematic and displays consistent shot compositions. There are a lot of wide lens closeups as you would expect in any of his films but, it never becomes annoying as it’s not even that constant.
As much as I’m praising this film for its consistent writing, but the driving force of the film rests solely is the performance of James McAvoy. McAvoy has not been an underrated actor, but recently you see him downplayed as just being young Professor X in the X-Men films and you know he has much more up his sleeve. Even when it’s small films such as Filth or Trance or bad films like Victor Frankenstein you appreciate his performance for he is charismatic and charming even when his character is the polar opposite. In Split where he has to play a man with so many personas you know, McAvoy has to put his 110% into this role and boy he accomplishes it in leaps and bounds. He showcases many personalities from not only dialect but expression and movement. One of his personalities is a fashionista then another suffer from OCD then another is a nine-year-old boy and it starts off entertaining and humorous but then he slowly begins to become terrifying. It is a remarkable performance that showcases the many identities you didn’t know McAvoy can act on. Although sometimes it seems like he’s mugging towards the camera especially when he’s in the persona of the “nine-year-old” Hedwig, but overall you’re surprised he delivers a performance as strong as this.
THE BAD: The film is nowhere near perfect. One of the biggest failures is continuity of editing. It’s startling at times because it’s simple editing errors. In one scene where Dr. Fletcher is talking to another doctor while walking in a park and we see this conversation in two separate shots. In one shot it’s in daylight then the other shot it’s all cloudy outside and you’re just like what? You can tell the difference from the principle photography and the reshoots. I don’t know why I nitpick so much on editing nowadays. Maybe it was because I took a post production class in 11th grade, but today I just have an eagle eye for errors for consistent continuity, which this film drops the ball on twice but it’s incredibly minor.
LAST STATEMENT: Smart and thoroughly thrilling with amazing performances from Taylor-Joy and McAvoy, Split is M. Night Shyamalan’s redefined welcomed return to the thriller genre that dignifies his place as the talented writer and director that we missed since Signs.
Rating: 4/5 | 86%
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Writing/Direction | Editing |
| James McAvoy | Continuity Errors |
| Anya Taylor Joy | Shyamalan Cameo |
| Character Development of Casey | |
| Betty Buckley |
Super Scene: Hedwig breaks it down.
