Split proves a satisfying thriller for non Shyamalan fans and a barnstorming, vindicating, return to form for diehards.
After being thoroughly disappointed by the last much awaited film I saw, and remembering that M. Night Shyamalan’s work can be quite hit and miss, I walked into this one with no expectations whatsoever…and got out like a cat on catnip.
Mostly set in Philadelphia, the film quickly introduces the central characters. Somewhere, Barry (James McAvoy) meets with Dr Fletcher (Betty Buckley) about an emergency session. Elsewhere and at a different time, teenagers Marcia and Claire head home with the latter’s dad who forces them to take their weirder classmate back with them.
The story turns sour for the three girls when in the parking lot, Dennis (James McAvoy again) disposes of the dad, gases them and drives off. They wake up locked in a windowless room and soon discover they have been kidnapped for a very sinister end.
Going back to the kidnapping scene, I’m usually quite irritated when a film shows a victim freeze when attacked by the film’s arch villain. In this case though, Dennis’ takeover of the car kept my suspension of disbelief intact, because the two girls in the backseat aren’t paying attention at all (which becomes quite meaningful later), while something mysterious about Casey (the weird loner who IS paying attention) makes her slow and hesitant attempt at an escape oddly believable. There is also a sense that for a moment, time stops, kudos to Mike Gioulakis’s mesmerising cinematography (throughout the film, camera movements and angles create at times a sense of daze and powerlessness, other times an eerie naturalism, always perfectly complemented by sound and West Dylan Thordson’s music).
Another aspect that kept my suspension of disbelief intact through most of the film was that I wasn’t sure what kind of story I was following, and therefore couldn’t lean on conventions to know where it was going and what to expect. In fairly typical M. Night Shyamalan fashion, the locations, production design, cinematography, costumes and music keep us on our toes. Are we in a drama, a supernatural thriller, a psychological thriller, a horror… or another genre altogether? “Surely nothing bad could possibly happen in Dr Fletcher’s sumptuous office” I caught myself thinking, only half believing my words as “Barry” (or was it really Dennis) deals with what looks to be a Lindor chocolate.
Above all though, Split is driven by its solid performances, especially its three (ten?) leads. Having studied DID as part of a psychology course back in college; I watched a few films such as The Three Faces of Eve and Fight Club back in those days. Though all presented a fair take on it (and keeping in mind the course didn’t cover the disorder in great depth), Split hit the spot in a way the others didn’t quite do so, both a credit to the screenplay and to James McAvoy’s incredible commitment, empathy and specificity.
Throughout the film, the Scottish native incarnates Barry, an adorable and level-headed fashion designer, Dennis, a sexually deviant kidnapper with OCD, Patricia, Dennis’s Stepford Wife-ish female associate…But also Hedwig, a stunted nine year old Kanye fan also in cahoots with Dennis and Patricia, Kevin, the abused and abandoned man who has created twenty-three alternate personalities for his own protection, Jade and Orwell, two ‘alters’ on Barry’s side (who unfortunately didn’t really move the plot forward and thus added unnecessary weight to the script), and a mysterious twenty-fourth, who pretty much reminded me of my worst childhood nightmares.
I’ve seen McAvoy competently portray a variety of characters before, including a deeply troubled cross dressing drug fiend, a murderer, and of course, a mind-reading mutant, but this is the most genuinely brilliant I’ve seen him since The Last King of Scotland era. If you ever wondered whether McAvoy could have played Norman Bates or become the next James Bond villain, you’ll get your answers there.
Anya Taylor-Joy (Casey) and Betty Buckley’s more reserved traits make an engrossing balance to McAvoy’s unsettling characters. In addition, Anya Taylor-Joy’s ability to tell a story with just one look leaves the main subplot deliciously open-ended.
The subplots weren’t however all perfect, interesting as they may all have been. For example, while Casey’s backstory effectively accounts for her behaviour (with initial flashbacks that made me wonder at first if she might be Dennis’s partner in crime Stockholm Syndrome style), it slips a little when Kevin’s ultimate alter fails to sense Casey’s past and has to rely on a visual cue to know what to do with her. As for Kevin himself, his cameo felt wasted by an overly expositional line.
Besides the already mentioned Jude and Orwell, who didn’t really need to be in the story aside for maybe two brief video journal entries (yes, yes, an alter can have something like diabetes, we get it), Dr Fletcher’s possible conference regarding D.I.D. seemed a bit superfluous as it really didn’t set up much, except a possible theory that the syndrome is the key to something greater about the human potential. Sure, seeing more of Dr Fletcher’s work/conflicts with her community could have been fascinating, but a stronger storyline would have been needed, which would have been too much here. Besides,, the main plot of ‘dangerous villain captures victims for a gruesome end while victims and outside help try to save the day’ was enough to keep me entertained, especially given the extra kick provided by a double twist…(SPOILERS AHEAD)
It is that extra kick that made it a homerun for me: as I witnessed Dennis transform into The Beast inside an Amtrak, my mind immediately leapt to Unbreakable, aka my personal Shyamalan favourite, and the comic book fix recent blockbusters failed to satisfy.
A few minutes later, diner patrons listen to the news about a new villain called “The Horde”. And true to comic book epilogue form, we spot David Dunn refresh someone’s memory about Mr Glass, thus confirming that what started as a simple horror / gritty psychological thriller was really… the villain genesis story of a possible Unbreakable sequel? Homerun!
All in all and in spite of minor bits of script fat, Split is definitely one of Shyamalan’s hits.
Split is out now in cinemas.
