A solid Split

M. Night Shyamalan, you can take him or leave him. Personally, I dig his work even though he’s sure had his struggles. He had an early series of excellent films (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, The Village – all recommended) followed by a later series of films of increasingly dubious quality (Lady in the Water, The Happening, The Last Airbender, After Earth).

Only recently has he gained a resurgence in his approval ratings. Two years ago, The Visit was a found-footage horror film featuring young children and older actors portraying their grandparents. Somehow, it worked. Well, it worked enough for people to start believing in him again.

Now, he’s back with what I feel is another way of cementing his status as the Hitchcock of contemporary cinema. He works hard to tell stories that don’t rely heavily on special effects but rather the writing, the acting, and the majesty of filmmaking, meaning creative lighting, sound and music, etc.

Split is an excellent example of his creative prowess and directorial acumen. It’s a simple story told well, even if I do have some big problems with how he did it. Three high school students (Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula, and Anya Taylor-Joy) are kidnapped by Kevin (James McAvoy), a man afflicted with dissociative identity disorder, often called multiple personality disorder. We learn that he has 23 different personalities: a young boy and an older woman among them.

Eventually, we learn that a 24th is about to emerge. He calls it the Beast.

While the central conceit here is enough to sustain the film, it does leave some lingering issues. The audience is left to sustain disbelief in how the three students fail to take advantage of some opportunities to escape. Like so many other movies with this storyline, we struggle to understand why they don’t find cohesion as a group. We balk at technical details like how passersby don’t notice the crime happening even though it involves a likely grievous injury to the father of one of the teens, or how three young art students (read: creative thinkers) don’t avail themselves of the numerous weapons and tools to be found in their new cell. When Kevin’s psychiatrist makes speeches about how those with the mental disorder are able to tap into their brain’s full potential, even to the point of changing their body chemistry to suit each individual personality, really. It reminded me a little too uncomfortably of Lucy and the magic blue drug that gave her the limitless power of her entire brain. It’s one thing to say that a person’s different personalities will wear different clothes and speak in different voices, and even deal with their own individual physical health issues but what this film proposes is something entirely different.

Regardless, the story tries to fill in those gaps and so the conceit holds. It all makes sense, or enough sense to satisfy this critic.

I should also say that using a main character’s mental health struggles to confirm him as the antagonist is definitely not a cool thing to do. Then again, that’s exactly what Hitchcock himself did with Psycho.

Yes, I am sticking with my argument that M. Night is the new Alfred. Even his overhead spiral staircase cinematography and the wonderfully effective musical score by West Dylan Thordson work magic for creating the dark and foreboding atmosphere of this gripping thriller.

What’s more: there’s dramatic talent here. McAvoy confirms that he’s an actor worth his salt. He’s taken some interesting and challenging roles, the least of which is the younger version of Professor Charles Xavier in those recent rancid X-Men flicks. Here, he proves his range with a multitude of characters, although we really only get to experience a modest handful of them.

Split is a fine piece of work and worthy of returning the Shyamalan name to the higher tiers of quality filmmakers. It’s a low budget, conceptual work that succeeds on its story, its storytelling, and its performances. I’d watch it again and I don’t say that often even for movies that earn higher ratings.