Review of Split (2017) by Kaptenvideo — 23 Jan 2017

Mysterious man with many distinct personalities (James McAvoy) kidnaps three girls and holds them without much explanations. What is going on and do they have a chance to get free again?

Even once-biggest fans of M. Night Shyamalan such as myself have to admit that, as a filmmaker, he is not nearly as good as he used to be. The breakout hit "The Sixth Sense" is still my favorite but his zenith came with 2002's "Signs". After that, the good going just, er, stopped. The same can be said, by the way, about Mel Gibson's acting career, who starred in "Signs".

So what happened? Shyamalan just suddenly lost his steam. Every later project I've seen has been artistically limp, pompous and/or bit weird in a bad way. True, I have skipped "Wayward Pines" and "The Visit", so maybe they are the exceptions.

M. has always known a thing or three about creating dark gripping atmosphere and characters we can root for but I think he is seldom good at moving the story along and making it compact. Thus, many bits or scenes in his movies are strong and/or fresh but the whole thing gets kind of tiring as it progresses. This is also exactly how I'd sum up "Split". Pure Shyamalan, with all his usual strengths and weaknesses. It has lot of good stuff going on. I like everything here separately... but the whole thing just does not come together.

"Split", too, goes to three different directions at once. None of them is really effective and satisfying – although could be if given more room and care – which is the main problem bogging the result down.

By far the best part is to watch James McAvoy playfully juggle different personalities, managing to move effortlessly from horrifying to funny to pathetic to kind of cool. It has to be the most interesting acting work anybody has ever had a chance of doing in Shyamalan movies which are known for one-note lead characters (not necessarily a bad thing but still). Although I don't understand the point of having 24 personas if we only get to see 8 of them. Were the others put on hold for the possible sequels?

So. "Split" is better than expected – although almost anything would be after Shyamalan's double death punch of early 2010's ("The Last Airbender", "After Earth"). And it has the second-best ending we have ever had in a Shymalan move.

Is it enough to give Shy another chance? Yes. But I'd still approach his future project with caution. The man has a long way to go back to the top. In the world full of me-too horror and thriller movies, usually relying on cheap scares (such as sudden sound effects), he could be one of the true auteurs. But he can't do it alone. He needs someone who will help to put all his ideas in tight compact packages.