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Split


Starring: James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula, and Betty Buckley
Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan
Screenplay by: M. Night Shyamalan

Here's a statement that will shock you.  M. Night Shyamalan has made a decent film again!
     Three young women have been kidnapped outside of a mall.  They are taken back to the kidnapper's lair where he likes to watch them undress and dance for him.  He comes back to check on them occasionally, but wearing different clothes and having vastly different personalities.  He turns out to be a guy named "Kevin", but "Kevin" has 23 different personalities, all of whom are almost completely different characters.
     While the girls are trying to escape from the windowless, dungeon-like room they've been put in, "Kevin" goes to a psychologist who specializes in dissociative personality disorders like he has.  But it's one of the 23 identities who gets the help needed.  It's up to the girls to play tricks on these different identities in order to escape.  But there's a time limit.  The different identities mention occasionally that there is a 24th identity that is trying to break through, one known as "the beast".  Also, at the end there's a nod to one of M. Night Shyamalan's movies from the past.
      M. Night Shyamalan may not always make great movies, but he makes intriguing concepts.  The concept for Split is clearly meant to play with the viewer's mind a bit; although not quite as well as one of his earlier films, The Sixth Sense.  Shyamalan tries to put in a plot twist that is as exciting as the ending of The Sixth Sense, but fails to be so.
     The best part of this film is James McAvoy.  He is a truly terrific actor and that is shown well in his other work, but Split is a defining performance of his career.  He embodies these different identities wholly as if they are different people.  Had this film been released last November or December, he may have been considered for an Oscar nomination.  It's a truly powerful performance that should not go unrecognized.
     Overall, this is not Shyamalan's best work, but it's his best work in years.  If you're thinking that it's a guaranteed waste of money, it's not.  Yes, it's the same filmmaker of bad hits such as The Last Airbender or After Earth, but it's also the same filmmaker as The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable.  This is a solid B-movie.  Maybe M. Night Shyamalan's having a comeback?

I give Split a B.

Image Source: Substream Magazine

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