M. Night Shyamalan has an up and down career as a director ranging from blockbusters like The Sixth Sense and Signs to awful fare like The Last Airbender and After Earth. However, between The Visit and his latest effort, Split, he definitely seems to have found his mojo once again.
It stars James McAvoy as Kevin, a young man with dissociative identity disorder who kidnaps three teenage girls (Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula, and Anya Taylor-Joy) and takes them back to his home and down into his basement for safekeeping. They don’t know too much about their unwelcome host except that they want to get out with their lives.
Kevin’s other personalities are made manifest in some bizarre yet funny sequences. One is a proper British woman named Miss Patricia; one is a nine-year-old boy named Hedwig and another is Barry, a janitor. McAvoy’s performance, or should I say performances, really give each character a sense of depth and menace and we never know which will pop out next, but it definitely keeps us intrigued.
Kevin’s most dominant personality is Barry and he has regular meetings with his therapist (Betty Buckley) who tries to help Kevin maintain normalcy while not knowing the unspeakable act he’s just committed.
As per usual with a Shyamalan story, we also get a typical Shyamalan twist ending that does work well, but it also produces questions that a potential sequel may have to answer. Needless to say, the plot twist may something “Unbreakable” for many viewers if you catch my drift.
Nevertheless, it’s just good to see Shyamalan back in his element with this well-crafted psychological thriller and here’s hoping he still has more aces up his sleeve.
Grade: B+
(Rated PG-13 for disturbing thematic content and behavior, violence and some language.)
