Three girls are abducted by a man who has a number of distinct personalities...
M Night Shyamalan, who has made some great films, such as The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, returned to a bit of form with The Visit after a run of films that were not good. In truth I had issues with The Visit, in part to do with Shyamalan's reputation of having a twist in his story somewhere. When reviews go on about the twists in his films, you find yourself thinking too much to what the twist will be, rather than simply watching the film. Often it takes a second viewing once you do know the twist to possibly appreciate the film more.
Without giving too much away, there are no twists in Split. Instead what we have here is a more straightforward story. It switches from the girls story and what their abductor has planned for them and of his interactions with his Doctor. The Doctor has a theory about the abductor, Kevin's, condition, one that will come to the fore late on as the personalities make mention of 'the beast'.
But there is a very creepy subplot going on. One of the girls, a bit of a loner who was in the wrong place at the wrong time during the kidnapping, has her own past to overcome as she and the others try to find a way out of their predicament. By the film's end, both stories are actually resolved in ways that fit well together.
Making your main character one suffering from a condition called dissociative identity disorder (DID) can be tricky to pull off. You need it to be as believable as possible (or as possible as a film like this can be) and you need an actor willing to give it his all. On both these, Split works. Shyamalan has parents that are doctors and I do think he treats the condition seriously (in the context of a film). But he needed an actor capable of pulling it off onscreen, and he has that with James McAvoy. As an actor, the role would be a challenge playing each persona that we see. Although we are told Kevin suffers from 23 personalities, with talk of the beast being a 24th, we only need to see a handful of them. We get Patricia, a prim woman, Hedwig, a nine year old boy, Dennis a bit of a control freak along with a few others, as well as Kevin himself. It needs a great performance from the actor and McAvoy delivers. At one point we see each persona in the same scene, without a camera cut or edit and McAvoy nails it. It's clear he as an actor is having a blast with the role and personally speaking I think it is an awards-worthy performance.
The actresses too are very good too. Anya Taylor-Joy is fast becoming one of the best young actresses around. So good in The Witch and Morgan last year, she is good here to as Casey, trying to survive while also overcoming her past at the same time. Haley Lu Richardson and Jessica Sula who play the other girls abducted, Claire and Marcia, are both good too. They are terrified, as they don't know what their abductor wants from them, but they do try to fight back as best they can. There's a moment where Claire is forced to take her top off and Richardson is totally convincing as her fear comes out as she wonders what will happen to her next, as we the audience are.
Betty Buckley plays the Doctor, Karen Fletcher treating Kevin, but beginning to suspect something is wrong. She only wants to help him and Buckley is good in the role. There is also a tremendous performance from Izzie Coffey as young Casey in the flashbacks.
It's a tense film through there are nice little moments of humour to offset that that work well. However, the story does get a bit overblown in the final act as we finally see why the girls were taken. But then we get an epilogue that puts the events in the film in a totally different and very unexpected way. Though it has to be said that based on the reaction of some of the audience I saw the film with they didn't understand the epilogue at all.
Split has a good score and is very well shot. It's a good film, the best from Shyamalan has made in a long time. If The Visit and Split are signs that Shyamalan is returning to form that can only be a good thing, as he is a truly talented filmmaker.
As it is, Split is well worth seeing.
Oh, and despite the name of the main character, Kevin, it's not about me...as far as I am aware!
Rating - 4/5
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