Review: Split

M. Night Shyamalan often falls in love with his own ideas so hard that the film can suffer. Just look at The Happening in which he thought that wind was scary. In his new film, he takes multiple personality disorder as a concept and contorts it into a messy film. While Split may not be a career low in an arguably rough career, it isn't as successful as his previous film The Visit. 

Split opens on three teenage girls getting abducted by a odd man (James McAvoy). Two of the girls are popular girls, Claire (Haley Lu Richardson) and Marcia (Jessica Sula). The third girl Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy) is an introvert whom the girls quietly judge in the opening scene. Soon all three girls learn that the man who has taken them has several personalities, 23 to be exact. We meet a few off the bat including the controlling Dennis, the matriarch Patricia, and the child-like Hedwig. All keep mentioning that "the Beast" is coming and that the girls are sacrifices for him. While this is going on the film cuts to follow a psychiatrist (Betty Buckley), who treats the McAvoy character.

Initially the film generates some real suspense as we see all three girls react to their situation in different ways. Clair starts to try to figure out ways to escape and Marcia follows. Casey however seems to be watching and waiting. The film inserts flashbacks of her with her father and uncle as they teach her to hunt. Their initial attempts to escape only get them separated. It is here where Split starts to lose its sense of building suspense and narrative cohesion. 

Shyamalan keeps cutting to numerous scenes of "sessions" between the Dennis personality and Dr. Fletcher. These scenes just dump a ton of exposition on the audience and occasionally border on a lecture about the validity to multiple personality disorder. One wonders why so much focus is given to these scenes as they kill the suspense and momentum of the film. Added to that, these scenes add very little to the film aside for a chance to let Shyamalan rant about his belief in the disorder. This doesn't make for very thrilling filmmaking. Throughout McAvoy is a compelling presence and he is having a field day in this role. He almost makes the film worth recommending. 

The other big issue with the film is the three captives themselves. They are sketched very thinly with Casey being the only one who is allowed any kind of backstory or distinctive qualities. Split explores themes of sexual abuse and the fallout from such horrific acts but often features young girls in their underwear breathing heavily. This contradiction was hard to swallow. The film treats the implication of sexual abuse with tact only to immediately follow it up with a male-gaze-driven thriller where young girls are being sexually threatened in their underwear. 

Shyamalan is known for his third-act surprises. Split is strangely void of such a tactic. I for one would have welcomed some sort of interesting new direction. The finale hardly feels like an ending. It is unclear who's story the film was telling. In its final moments, Split tries desperately to setup a sequel or at least a strained connection to one of Shyamalan's earlier and better films. It got a laugh out of me but I had already given up on Split by then. 

2/5