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 Split (2017) Director:M. Night Shyamalan Starring: James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley, also a Shyamalan cameo (of course) Split is the 12th film directed by M. Night Shyamalan, loosely based off of the true story of a man with DID (dissociative identity disorder) who went to trial and was acquitted of multiple rapes by reason of insanity - the man, Billy Milligan, had lawyers who successfully pled the case that two of his personalities committed the crimes without him knowing what was taking place. Casey (Taylor-Joy) is kidnapped along with two other classmates by a mysterious man (McAvoy) who imprisons the three of them in a room for some unknown purpose. The man is clearly intending darker purposes for the three girls, but Casey seems resigned and almost familiar with the abuses that might be visited upon them; she's certainly not as willing to break free in the more conventional "jump him and let's escape" sense. Casey's curiosity pays off when the man begins to exhibit multiple personalities before the girls, several of which occupy more screen time than most: impulsive nine-year-old Hedwig, matronly yet steely Patricia, and the intense, dangerous, OCD sufferer Dennis. Casey decides that their best bet of survival is to play the personalities off against each other in a bid to find a way out without provoking physical retribution. Outside the dungeon-like confines of the girls' prison, Dr. Karen Fletcher (Buckley) begins to grow suspicious as she receives multiple e-mails from Barry asking for help; Barry, she knows, is one of 23 personalities belonging to her longtime patient Kevin. She's also well aware that not all of Kevin's personalities are as laconic and friendly as the easygoing fashion designer Barry, and she carefully attempts to piece the puzzle together over several of Barry's visits even as he flatly denies requesting anything. Dr. Fletcher is determined to succeed in uncovering the mystery behind Barry's e-mails, not only for Kevin's sake but for the validation of her theories of DID sufferers. Time is ticking, though - Dr. Fletcher knows that Kevin's suppressed, darker personalities believe in the concept of "The Beast", something which honestly just doesn't sound super pleasant coming from someone with 23 personalities. Ultimately, it seems as though the girls' attempts at escape will depend upon Dr. Fletcher's success at getting the right answers. OR WILL IT?[/shyamalan] Jokes aside, this movie is a continuation of Shyamalan's return to form after 2015's The Visit, a really effective slow-burn thriller that I recommend as a light watch. Split is notably darker than The Visit, but there's still humor to be found here - McAvoy's got great opportunities playing Hedwig to draw laughter that's both nervous and genuine at once; watching a physically fit man exhibit the mentality of a grade-schooler draws laughs, but there's a menace behind the performance as the audience wonders how long it will be before the creepy Dennis decides it's his turn to take over (or, for that matter, the equally creepy Patricia). Speaking of McAvoy, he's working his rear end off here. Granted, the four personalities I mentioned are the ones he seems to sink the most work into (we get a look at some of the others later, but they don't seem as fully developed or realized). That shouldn't really detract from the fact that he pulls off something pretty great here with his performance; it's entertaining as hell. Taylor-Joy is also effective as a young girl clearly hiding something more behind her practiced loneliness, and Buckley's Dr. Fletcher is relentless yet quite clearly cares deeply about Kevin and his ability to lead a normal life. Now for what you likely expected from a Shyamalan movie: Yes, there is a twist. Yes, this movie goes batshit fairly quickly in the third act. Spoilers below: The Twist: Turns out Dr. Fletcher's theories were correct - she believed that the brain, in creating certain personalities of a DID sufferer to deal with trauma, would have a psychosomatic effect on the body. For example, some patients' personalities had high blood pressure or diabetes, while others didn't. We're expected to believe that "The Beast" is a fictional concoction of Dennis and Patricia, a cannibalistic creature that can climb walls and has rock-hard skin. It's not - it ends up being Kevin's newly-emerged, 24th personality and he gains horrific strength, incredible resilience, and can climb along walls at the climax of the movie; he survives two shotgun blasts at point-blank range. It's likely not coincidental that Kevin's 23 personalities are analogous to our 23 pairs of chromosomes, and a 24th personality suggests something extra - something superhuman. Speaking of analogues, if this sounds like a villainous origin story along the lines of Shyamalan's well-regarded superhero origin story Unbreakable, I've got good news for you! The Even Bigger Twist: Surprise - this is a stealth sequel to Shyamalan's well-regarded superhero origin story Unbreakable! It's only revealed in the last 30 seconds of the movie, as a patron in a diner watches a news story on Kevin's rampage and can't quite put her finger on a similarly strange , wheelchair-bound mass murderer in Philadelphia years ago - fortunately, David Dunn (Bruce Willis) is there to remind her that the man's name was Mr. Glass. Overall, I liked this movie. I think the flashback scenes to Casey's childhood with her father and her uncle were a bit superfluous at times, but necessary to showcase the abuse at the hands of her uncle, which saved her from Kevin but ultimately doomed her as Casey returned to her uncle's care at the end of the movie. Plus, I'm a loving sucker for Unbreakable and Shyamalan pushed that drat nostalgia button with that final scene. He's already spoken of the possibility of a sequel which would pit David Dunn against Kevin Crumb/The Horde. ElectricSheep fucked around with this message at 04:57 on Jan 22, 2017 |
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Jan 22, 2017 04:18
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 01:27 |
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Funny enough, I told my wife that's what I thought would happen too when I first started seeing commercials for it. About 30 minutes in I found myself watching the movie for the sake of the movie and not trying to piece out the twist, which is sort of what happened with The Visit, and I think it gave that moment a bit more heft when I wasn't trying to look for it.
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Jan 22, 2017 14:22
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moths posted:I think part of the problem was that the two girls who got eaten were portrayed as just as smart, capable, brave, and kind. The only reason the main girl survives is because another man had already raped her making her 'pure' in the eyes of the villain. It was her most distinguishing characteristic. From Kevin's perspective, he only saw that Casey was covered in scars, not that she was raped. I would hesitate to say that he'd know immediately that they were self-mutilation scars - death of the author and all that - but as a rule most people don't incur scars like that at a young age unless they've been through abnormal trauma. We only know she was molested because of the flashbacks. Also, I have a genuine question to those offended by the presentation of DID: no problem and you're well within your rights to as per your experiences. Hell, personal experience left me rolling my eyes a bit when I went to see Side Effects, a movie which took an ostensibly suicidal, depressive patient and made her into a murderer that committed the premeditated murder of her husband under cover of the Ambien Walrus. I didn't take anything personally here because I didn't feel as though anything was being presented beyond the scope of B-movie horror/thriller, but YMMV. Anyway, at least two posters have mentioned multiple movies where M. Night has maligned mental illnesses for the sake of a plot. Apart from this movie and The Visit, what others are we talking about? e: joke answer - inclusion of Mark Wahlberg in The Happening ElectricSheep fucked around with this message at 01:37 on Jan 30, 2017 |
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Jan 30, 2017 01:27
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I Am A Robot posted:The ending transformed a pretty good movie into something incredible. I have no idea how he managed to convince the studio to withhold knowledge that would have increased the movie's bottom line. Well, going back to The Sixth Sense, that movie pretty much blew up via a combo of word-of-mouth and the Oscar nominations it pulled for a new director to Hollywood - plus the whole "twist ending" thing was drawing comparisons to Hitchcock. Fast-forward nineteen years and it seems kind of funny, especially because Hitchcock couldn't conceive of The Happening on his worst day. However, consider the approach taken here: no marketing blitz even after its release and this movie's already pulled in $115 million domestically on a $9 million budget. The twist itself is buried right at the end because Shyamalan's got to outdo his own gimmicks at this point. This whole thing feels very much like an attempt to reboot his image as a director. Shyamalan is also going to take this ball and run with it: it looks like we'll get Willis vs. McAvoy after all.
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Feb 16, 2017 05:41
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zandert33 posted:In regards to the first "twist" in the first post, I don't see how it's a twist in any way. We are told over and over that something is going to happen. We are flat out told the conditions how it can happen, and then it happens. That's the OPPOSITE of a twist, that's a plot coming to completion. I agree to a certain extent - Split in both case basically apes Unbreakable but I can still argue the first point being a twist, albeit a minor one in comparison to the second. Consider that in the latter movie, Elijah spends most of it telling David that "something is going to happen" (he's a superhero?), the "conditions (how) it can happen" (lack of illness/injury, apparent super strength) and "then it happens" (he's a superhero!). In the case of Unbreakable, Shyamalan is pretty much proving to you at every turn that David is a superhero and we're just waiting for David's acceptance of it. The audience expectations aren't subverted whatsoever; therefore, the twist of that movie isn't in David's abilities but in the identity of the person pulling the strings all along. Split is a bit more coy about it because of the implausibility of Kevin's story of "The Beast" - at worst, we assume that the Beast will probably be a really nasty, albeit human, personality of his that is dangerous and the only ones supporting his story are three personalities that aren't exactly forthright or trustworthy. Contrast that with a mental health professional that exists as a representation of Kevin's humanity and is there to ground the audience in reality from Kevin's stories. The ambiguity is present for a reason in Split, mainly because it's trying hard to mask its connection with Unbreakable, but I think it's also because Shyamalan wanted us to believe David Dunn was a superhero in Unbreakable right from the start. I could liken the approach of the plot twist of Split to the plot twist of 12 Monkeys, so I can see your point here. When I was watching 12 Monkeys for the first time, I wasn't surprised whatsoever that time travel was real and Bruce Willis wasn't really just some nutjob for exactly the same reasons you didn't feel like this was a twist: both movies present hypothetical questions and ask their audiences to make a choice. It's diametric and you can't really sit neutral and impassive; either you believe, or you don't. I didn't believe, but I forgot I was sitting in an M. Night Shyamalan movie after a while.
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Apr 10, 2017 14:35
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 01:27 |
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Yeah, you're right. I said/believe the same thing too.
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Apr 10, 2017 21:17
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