Split
M. Night Shyamalan's newest film "Split" stars James McAvoy and Anya Taylor-Joy in a thriller about a man who has Dissociative Identity Disorder that takes three girls captive. The girls have to deal with the different personalities that appear as they try to somehow escape from his prison. Shyamalan is a director many thought was going to go on to become one of the greats among the likes of Steven Spielberg after he directed his much loved film "Sixth Sense". Sadly what actually happened was that his films just seemed to get worse and worse with every new release. One thing that always seemed to hold back his movies was that they all had to have a big "twist" at the end to surprise the viewers. It got to the point where people would watch his movies expecting the twist to come and once the twist came, it just wasn't any good to the point where it even made his films worse. Personally I liked "The Sixth Sense", 'Unbreakable" and "Signs" (even though the twist in Signs was one of the dumbest twists ever). After watching his movie "The Last Airbender", which is one of the worst movies I remember watching in the Theaters, I never watched another one of his films... That is until "Split" of course. So is this another failure by Shyamalan?
The Answer is thankfully NO, not even close to a failure because I really had fun watching this movie. I can't say that I loved this movie, but I do think it's actually a great thriller with a really fantastic performance by James McAvoy. McAvoy who plays the man with the split personalities and does such a good job making each of them feel different. It was so great to see how his facial expressions and posture would change for each character, making each of his split personalities actually feel like completely different people when you watch them. Each personality he played has distinct quirks and attitudes and it was exciting when you got to see a new one introduced to the story. McAvoy was definitely the best part of this whole movie, very enjoyable to watch him work.
Also great in the movie was the protagonist Casey played by Anya Taylor-Joy, who also did a good job at reacting to all of McAvoys different personalities convincingly. Her character is introduced right from the start of the movie as an outcast, and I think she does a good job at playing that role as well as selling her fear of her kidnapper. The other two girls with her Claire and Marcia played by Jessica Luca and Haley Lu Richardson were also fine in the movie, not as memorable as the other actors even as side characters to the story. There are some slower moments in the movie, but none of it feels completely unnecessary and it just builds the two main characters and the story more.
As a thriller this movie did a good job at keeping me in suspense. Wondering what personality was going to come out next, and what kind of person he would be with the new personality. The movie keeps you wondering just what is actually going on and why he is doing what he is doing. James McAvoy's performance really shines and makes this a very fun movie to watch. This feels like a good new start for Shyamalan, and I hope he uses the momentum from this to keep making exciting and fun movies like this one. It seems like he's turning a new leaf with his last two movies actually being good and he's gaining my trust again.
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