The career of M. Night Shyamalan has had its ups and downs
over the years. After being anointed the next Spielberg following the massive
success of “The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable,” and “Signs” in the late 90’s and
early 2000’s, the filmmaker faltered with middling efforts, “The Village” and
“The Happening,” before completely squandering any goodwill with his big-budget
fantasy and science fiction projects, “The Last Airbender”
and “After Earth.”
Things
didn’t take an upswing until 2015’s low-budget, found-footage horror “The
Visit,” when Shyamalan returned to his roots, working on the type of
smaller, genre-bending films that earned him a reputation in the first place. His
latest, the lean, wildly entertaining thriller “Split,” continues that upward
trend.
Perhaps
Shyamalan’s biggest downfall was that his films began to be defined solely by
their twists. Whether or not you enjoyed them hinged entirely on how taken you
were with their surprise revelations. And with each passing film, the gimmick
grew less and less effective. Thankfully “Split” offers no “Big Twist.” Yes,
there’s something that happens late in the film that recontextualizes
things a bit, but trust me: don’t go in waiting for a twist, or you’re going to
leave disappointed.
James McAvoy
stars as Kevin, a man with an extreme case of dissociative identity disorder
(DID) which has resulted in possessing 23 different personalities. As the film
opens, one of Kevin’s personalities abducts three teenage girls — Claire (Haley
Lu Richardson, “The Edge of Seventeen”), Marcia (Jessica Sula), and Casey (Anya
Taylor-Joy, “The Witch”) — and takes them back to his underground refuge.
Kevin’s reasons for keeping the girls remains murky through much of the film,
though we know that it revolves around the relatively recent emergence of a
mysterious 24th identity known only as “The Beast.”
Meanwhile
Kevin’s therapist (Betty Buckley) is advocating on his behalf, unaware of her
patient’s more unsavory activities. She has a growing fear that something is
amiss when one of Kevin’s personalities keeps urgently requesting an emergency
appointment, only for him to show up at her office and wave off her concern.
Buckley brings some much-needed warmth to a film that’s often dark and nasty,
even if she tasked with shouldering much of the film’s exposition.
While
“Split” is often suspenseful, it’s never truly scary, and there’s a touch of
exploitation in the way it treats some very real suffering as a source for
audience thrills; though DID is a real ailment, the film doesn’t exactly offer
a nuanced portrayal of mental illness. The plot is more than a little ludicrous,
and as an exploration of mental illness, “Split” is as deep as a puddle, but
the film works in part because of Shyamalan’s general compassion for the
characters (even if he allows terrible things to happen to them). If there’s a through
line that winds its way through much of Shyamalan’s work, it’s his interest in
the way people cope with trauma and how they overcome their demons in order to
function in the world.
The three
girls respond to their dire situation in very different ways. Casey’s a bit of
a misfit due to her own childhood trauma, which we learn about as her backstory
is gradually doled out by Shyamalan. She knows about survival, and it’s not
always through the physical toughness with expect from our horror movie
heroines. She gains a certain empathy for her captor, and with her performance,
Taylor-Joy makes us redefine what makes someone strong and what makes a victim.
Unfortunately, the characters of Claire and Marcia don’t benefit from the same
development Casey receives, but Richardson and Sula play them convincingly.
Really,
though, this is McAvoy’s show. He gives a tour-de-force performance in a big,
flashy (teetering on hammy) role he carries off with impressive skill. We meet
only a few of those 23 personalities: OCD tough guy Dennis; mischievous
9-year-old Hedwig; prim, British schoolmarm Patricia; and flamboyant fashion
designer Barry. Those are the dominant personas, though we get brief glimpses
of a few others. The actor makes each of Kevin’s identities distinct, cluing us
into which personality has “the light” before he even opens his mouth. All the
while, McAvoy gets at the vulnerability and sadness underlying his character.
Shyamalan is
a masterful technician, and his skill elevates what’s essentially a B-movie
potboiler to another level. The virtuosic camerawork of cinematographer Mike Gioulakis (“It Follows”) is a major asset, his camera
constantly pursuing the characters and accentuating the claustrophobia of
Kevin’s underground lair. Shyamalan composes the frame to keep us constantly
afraid of what remains hidden in the shadows.
“Split” is
entertaining enough to convince me that “The Visit” wasn’t a fluke.
Well-crafted, clever, and thrilling, its most
impressive achievement just might be that it’s managed to make me excited to
see what Shyamalan does next.
Check back
on Friday for additional film coverage, including a review of “A Dog’s
Purpose.”
This article appears in Jan 25-31, 2017.
