Film Review: M. Night Shyamalan’s “Split”

I got invited to a (very) early screening of M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie a few weeks ago, and I almost bailed on it. You see, when you go to a movie, you just pay and walk in. With these screenings, you have to get there over an hour early, because well, people show up. When you’re told it’s a new M. Night film, that adds another thing to consider entirely. Am I going to drive across town, pay to park, stand in a line with strangers and have to leave my phone in the car for an M. Night movie? It was a tough call, but I said fuck it and went. If you don’t know why it was a tough call, go watch Signs, or The Village, or even Lady in the Water, or if none of those explain it, try to watch The Happening. We’ve been hurt by M. Night in the past, and now it’s like this weird co-dependent relationship where I know I might get played, I know I might get hurt, but I just have to go see.

This time I was blown away. I was not entirely sure what to expect, until I saw the very well done trailer. It is intense. Go see that first. The plot is not necessarily the mind blowing part. In fact, it’s pretty simple. It starts with a birthday party of some typically vapid teen girls. They are laughing at the one “goth” girl who came to the party and now has no ride home. She is offered a ride home by the dad, and as they are getting in the car, something happened. There’s this guy, who gets in the driver’s seat who is not the Dad. Before anyone can react, he hits them with some kind of knockout spray. This was my least favorite part as it’s such a typical movie trope. The girls wake up in a small locked room, and the rest of the movie is them trying to get out. Of course the pretty popular girls are useless and the brooding girl is totally in control and handles shit. The girls are imprisoned by Kevin (James McAvoy), who has a condition called Dissociative Personality Disorder. It means that there are multiple personalities living in his head, and they are not entirely aware of each other. The personalities can take the forms of men, women, children, etc. and they present themselves sometimes within minutes of each other. As the girls try to deal with their situation, it is becoming very tense and suspense builds well. The climax was something I did not see coming. It is not a typical M. Night “twist” but there is one of those at the very end, and it will either make you groan or cheer. It is not really part of the actual movie, and that’s all I’ll say because this film is worth watching on it’s own merit. The lack of fancy special effects and stuff will allow you to drink in McAvoy’s performance. He KILLS this role. At times he is intense, creepy, violent, funny, scared, vulnerable, female, gay & straight male, egotistical, a 9 year old boy… it’s hard to even tally all of the acting this guy crammed into Kevin. This might get him an Oscar, Golden Globe, any other awards you can imagine.  I can’t wait until it comes out wide so I can see it again. If you’ve been hurt by M. Night movies in the past, this one might bring you back. I’d say that if The Sixth Sense is Shyamalan’s finest film, this is a close second.