Split

Split

Starring James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley, Haley Lu Richardson

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

The Story:
After a birthday party at the mall, pretty friends Claire (Haley Lu Richardson) and Marcia (Jessica Sula) - along with shy, sullen, introverted Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy) are abducted by Kevin (James McAvoy) and taken to his underground home.  They quickly discern that he has multiple personalities, and the most prominent ones are OCD Dennis, British proper Patricia, and young Hedwig.  Kevin visits Dr. Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley), who identifies him as having dissociative identity disorder, having 23 distinct personalities.

Back at his lair, the two girls want to try to overpower Kevin, but Casey - having gone through survival training as a child - tries to reason with Kevin and his personalities, and he reveals to her that there's another personality waiting to come out, one known as The Beast, which will devour the impure and having been the reason they were abducted in the first place.

The Synopsis:
M. Night Shyamalan used to be a big name in Hollywood.  With his first major motion picture - "The Sixth Sense" - he revolutionized the thriller genre, offering mind-bending twists and highly original concepts, not to mention garnering several Oscar nominations - a rarity in horror.  He followed it up with more groundbreaking films such as "Unbreakable" and "Signs," and it looked like the sky was the limit for this highly inventive writer/director.

Then he released "The Village," and it seemed like he might be losing his touch.  "The Lady in the Water" and "The Happening" were both also critically panned and were both commercial bombs, but then came "The Last Airbender" and "After Earth," and it appeared Shyamalan was done.  "Airbender" and "After Earth" were generic films that had none of his earlier charm and personality, and it seemed all hope was lost.

Then last year he came out with "The Visit," which was another stretch for the director as he delved into the "found footage" territory.  This was his make-or-break film, the one that would either pull him out of his grave, or hammer the final nail.  Thankfully it was a critical and audience success, and re-established him as a credible director.

With "Split," he once again hit a critical homerun, and continues to climb back up the mountain to reach another peak.  He tells a richly original story that, although clocking in at nearly two hours, doesn't feel that long at all.  You're completely drawn into the story from the first frame to the last, seeking to find that classic twist and critically thinking about every second.  What is going to happen next, what is the big reveal, and how does it all tie together?  This is a highly cerebral horror movie, a rarity of its genre, and features some truly amazing performances.

At the center of the movie is James McAvoy, who is already an acclaimed actor in his own right (besides starring as Charles Xavier in the new "X-Men" movies, he's also appeared in "Filth," "Wanted," "Atonement" and "The Last King of Scotland," among others), but who delivers a tour-de-force performance here as Kevin, a man who has dissociative identity disorder, harboring 23 different personalities within him.  This required McAvoy to change at the drop of a hat, and seamlessly blends into any of the distinct personalities on a whim and does so in a hauntingly eerie fashion.  Whether he's OCD Dennis, the patriarchal Patricia, the fun-loving nine year old Hedwig, or flamboyant NYC fashion designer Barry, McAvoy draws us into his story.  The only unfortunate thing is that not more of his personalities were allowed to shine here, but the ones that did left a lasting impact.

Betty Buckley plays Dr. Karen Fletcher, who's a psychologist who tries to help Kevin deal with his DID, and serves as the motherly figure for the troubled man.  She is kind, gentle, intelligent and caring, and is one of the few who doesn't see Kevin's psychosis as a disease, but rather as a way of making himself better than most humans.  She believes DID unleashes a power in the brain and allows it to achieve its fullest potential, and encourages Kevin to see it in a more positive light.

Newcomer Anya Taylor-Joy plays Casey, the not-so-typical final girl in this horror movie (the other two girls are basically just there to serve as background fodder, and Shyamalan doesn't waste his time or ours in trying to tell their story in any relative context).  Having broken out in the critically acclaimed "The Witch," Taylor-Joy once again proves she's a force to be reckoned with on the big screen.  Whereas McAvoy's character(s) are larger than life, Taylor-Joy plays Casey to a quiet elegance, not always speaking but always talking, especially with those expressive, huge almond eyes.  She slays her performance, making her someone you genuinely care and root for, and is also someone with a startling past secret of her own.  She, unlike her two fellow captors, is not your cookie-cutter character, but rather a detailed, nuanced person who uses her past demons to try and outwit Kevin and play him at his own game.

Besides the horror aspect of this film, Shyamalan goes to great lengths to really tell the story that is dissociative identity disorder, something that some psychiatrists still don't think is real.  While it was once known as multiple personality disorder, it is often characterized by at least two distinct, differing identities living within one person, with their own memories, knowledge, and behaviors.  Some patients have even shown physical differences depending on which identity is active at the time (some identities suffer from physical ailments such as diabetes that the other personalities don't).  It's highly controversial because no real definition exists, and there's no real cure for it.  In "Split," Kevin deals with this disease in a way that directly correlates to the definition of the disease.  Dennis suffers from OCD, Hedwig wants to dance around to Kanye West, Patricia is prim and proper, Barry is a fashion designer, Jade has diabetes, and Orwell has a vast knowledge of history - all of which are completely their own; Dennis doesn't know history, Patricia doesn't have diabetes, Hedwig isn't proper, etc.  It's a fascinating study and McAvoy plays it brilliantly.

The Summary:
From start to finish, Shyamalan brings a totally unique tale to vivid life through powerful performances, a thrilling concept and his return-to-form storytelling that draws you in from the beginning to its mind-bending conclusion.

The Score: A+