Here is the premise: Three girls are kidnapped by a man with 24 distinct personalities so they must find which personalities can help them while running away and staying alive from the others.
You have to hand it to M. Night Shyamalan; he keeps cranking out movies amidst critics tearing his movies apart. I have not been as critical to Shyamalan and his movie choices as my fellow critics, but it has been hard to ignore the bad movies like THE HAPPENING, THE VILLAGE, and THE LAST AIRBENDER. Shyamalan has seen resurgence with projects like THE VISIT and WAYWARD PINES, and now SPLIT. SPLIT hits the trifecta, good story, good acting, and wonderful ending that will leave you wanting more.
First the story, personally I love stories that delve into split personalities. I find that subject very interesting from what caused the split personalities to the significance of each separate personality. While we only get to see about nine of the personalities, Shyamalan deals with the why and the cause of these to my satisfaction. In true Shyamalan fashion, this is not a story that is straightforward, there are surprises and twists that make SPLIT stand out from any other split personality movie around.
The acting blew me away, James McAvoy is phenomenal, switching from personality to personality and keeping it very convincing. When he switches to each personality, he embodies them and changes his whole demeanor; a very difficult thing to do as an actor but McAvoy makes it look easy. Jessica Sula, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Haley Lu Richardson play the three kidnapped girls and they are awesome; with more of the story focusing on Anya Taylor-Joy’s character Casey. Anya does a great job as the not so typical teenage girl who is the first teen that realizes what they are up against with their kidnapper.
Also, like a true Shyamalan classic, the ending is not a normal ending; while I will not be one of those people that give it away, I will tell you it was AWESOME to this Shyamalan fan.
I highly recommend SPLIT, it is a thrill ride.
Russell Lockhart
