SPLIT
Miss Patricia, Dennis, Barry, and Hedwig; These are
just a few of the characters portrayed by James McAvoy in the latest
thriller from writer/director M. Night Shyamalan. And the actor delivers
an incredible performance as a man suffering
through DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) and revealing a number of
different characteristics with each separate character. Officially, DID
is considered an unproven condition- more an extension of a defensive
mechanism for schizophrenics who have encountered
traumatic events in their lives. The film, however, stands on the
conceit of the condition as a separate thing with some strong research
to back it up- but it’s really McAvoy’s performance that conveys the
urgency of what each character represents to the needs
of the “host” body. Dennis protects with an urgent need for cleanliness
and order, Miss Patricia provides the matronly comfort and devotion to
an unspecified “faith” complete with quotations, while Hedwig remains an
innocent child far from the responsibility
of adulthood. Each other character receives some degree of purpose, but
the film primarily centers around those three, and collectively the
personalities often refer to themselves as “The Horde”.
And things spiral out of control when “Dennis”
commits to an action that finds him kidnapping three teenage girls and
keeping them in a cellar. The girls are to be fed to a “Beast” in the
manner of a sacred meal. Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy),
the archetypical loner, engages McAvoy in a dangerous game of cat and
mouse when she attempts to persuade Hedwig to help her in escaping. But
the clock is ticking because the Beast is on the move. Casey’s character
is riddled with a history we get a glimpses
of through flashback, where a fateful hunting trip with her father and
uncle leads to revelations.
M. Night Shyamalan has seen his share of success and failure in recent years. After his huge success in “The 6th
Sense”, Shyamalan followed up with “Unbreakable” and then signed
with Disney for a multi-film deal that brought us “The Village” and
“Signs”. Often relying on a sudden twist near the end of the story,
Shyamalan’s films are often metaphorical explorations
of grief, loss, and purpose. I’m not a huge fan of the director’s work,
but I do recognize the ability of the man to craft a good film. This
movie seems to be a very personal exploration of his own recent failings
and a stripping down of the frills the director
is often criticized for. He plays on the audiences expectations.
For the second horror film of the year, Split gives
us a pretty good chiller and introduces an engaging antagonist in the
several divided personalities of The Horde. Stay past the initial
credits for a small stinger at the end which will
be sure to thrill many Shyamalan fans.
7.5 out of 10 and a must see for 2017.
*POST NOTE*
I am aware of some controversy surrounding the film
and its depiction of mental illness and transgenderism- speaking from a
place where I have no personal perspective of life as a transgender,
I’m not going to tell people whether they should
be offended or not. Instead, I will speak to my opinion and my reading
of the film itself: The film does not accurately reflect the life
choices or personality traits of those who are transgender nor those who
may suffer from DID. This is a speculative work
of fiction that utilizes a mental illness to portray the divided
personalities that reside within the body of a man who has suffered many
traumatic events. It reflects the strength he receives and the twisted
means in which he learns to cope with those events
in his life. They are representations of IDEALS which the hosts
subconscious feels will keep him safe from harm.
Awesome review!
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