<<<Return to "A to Z" list
Split
Most of us house just one personality, right? Then again,
how do you define a personality? Is it by the way you walk, talk, dress and
act? Is it how you interact with others? Or is it defined by your choices?
In M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller “Split”
he takes us into the world of one man with 23 different personalities. Played
to perfection by James McEvoy, the film wastes no time getting into its
storyline. Three teenage girls are travelling with one of the girls dads. Out
of nowhere, a man knocks the dad out, slips into the car and sits there for a
moment before the girls have realised he is not there dad. Just as quickly as
he got into the car, he sprays the girls with some kind of toxin, and they pass
out.
The girls then awaken in a darkened room, and their captor
appears. He is dressed in neat clothes and wears glasses. Appearing with no
emotion or empathy in his bones, the man explains they are here forever. As the
girls pull together and try to escape their confinement, they see the figure of
a woman through a hole in the door. Her high heels and long black skirt are a
dead giveaway. Calling her help, the woman approaches the door and opens it, to
reveal... it’s the same man, dressed as a woman, and now speaking and acting
like a woman. The girls are highly confused to say the least, bust the hours
turn into days, each time their captor appears, he is in different clothes with
different voices, mannerisms and personalities. The girls soon realise they are
dealing with a kidnapper with multiple faces, and each character they meet
reveals a little more about why they’re there.
M. Night Shyamalan burst onto the screen in 1999 with a
little ghost movie you might have heard of called “The Sixth Sense”. It was one
of the best film debuts of any director, proved Bruce Willis could act,
introduced the world to acting prodigy Haley Joel Osment and gave us the best
twist ending in movie history. The reclusive director followed up that classic
with a couple of worthy films in “Unbreakable” and “Signs”, but then things
quickly turned south. I guess the director who could make any film he want to,
did exactly that, dabbling in his own bizarre stories as a form of
entertainment, when they were clearly more just self indulgence. Things slowly
bus surely went from bad to worse with the promising premise of “The Village”
going nowhere, followed by the ridiculous absurd “Lady in the Water”, then the
mother of all shockers “The Happening” with Mark Whalberg’s acting and storyline of killer trees
forcing people to off themselves showing us this once promising director had
sipped into some deep realm of silliness.
All looked lost with a few more dud movies, until out of
nowhere in 2014 Shyamalan returned with “The Visit”. Using the found footage perspective
of moviemaking, with two children holding video cameras, this film gave us a
creepy and believable storyline of a brother and sister going to visit their
grandparents for the first time. The suspense builds as the kids learn
something is clearly not right with their grandparents and the twist was a real
corker. It appeared M. Night was back, and when Split
was released earlier this year, becoming the directors most successful film
financially, and resorting more on a simple storyline with strong acting no real
twist, Shyamalan was reinvented, and had audiences believing in him again.
You have to give the guy credit for coming up with different
and original story lines time after time, and his subtly different style in
directing each film is fun to watch. He chooses his actors well and certainly
made the right choice with James McEvoy who acts the shit out of his role. Embodying
the souls of at least eight different characters we see portrayed on screen,
the relatively young actor proved he had the chops to take any character and
hit them right out of the park, using every facial gesture, tone of voice and
bodily movement under the sun to make us believe he really was housing all
those characters.
And with such a brilliant set up, where does it all go? If you’ve
seen the trailer, you will see snippets of McEvoy’s character (who mostly goes
by Kevin) building towards a transformation where his hidden 24th
personality will finally emerge. And it’s not pretty. Not so much a person but
more of a beast, the reveal of this character is quite the sight to behold, as
McEvoy shows he had one more monster inside him to act out, even after the
first 90 minutes of on screen antics.
I can’t go into much more plot other than what I’ve shared,
but do yourself a favour and check out “Split”
If you want a smart thriller, with suspenseful scenes and absolutely brilliant
acting by James McEvoy which could see him get a few acknowledgments come
awards season later this year, and then Split
is the movie for you.
And if you’re up to date on your movies from M. Night
Shyamalan, *cough – cough* Unbreakable *cough-cough* then watch out for a nice
little connection to that former movie that hints at what is to come.
Well, I’ve said enough. Time for me to Split.
Ha-ha!
No comments:
Post a Comment