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SPLIT (2017) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

SPLIT (2017) movie

Genre | Thriller

Classification | M

Running time | 117 minutes

Released | 26 January 2017

cast

James McAvoy ...
Dennis / Patricia / Hedwig / The Beast / Kevin Wendell Crumb / Barry / Orwell / Jade

Anya Taylor-Joy ... Casey Cooke
Betty Buckley ... Dr. Karen Fletcher
Haley Lu Richardson ... Claire Benoit
Jessica Sula ... Marcia

director

M. Night Shyamalan

writer

M. Night Shyamalan

cinematographer

Mike Gioulakis

music

West Dylan Thordson

film editor

Luke Ciarrocchi

box office result

Worldwide $278,454,358

Australia $9,503,662

North America $138,291,365

the best dialogue

Dr. Fletcher: I've never seen a case like this before. Twenty three identities live in Kevin's body.

Dr. Fletcher: An individual with multiple personalities can change their body chemistry with their thoughts.

The Beast: The broken are more evolved.

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SPLIT (2017) MOVIE IMAGES

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SPLIT (2017) STORY SYNOPSIS

Though Kevin (James McAvoy) has evidenced 23 personalities to his trusted psychiatrist, Dr. Fletcher (Betty Buckley), there remains one still submerged who is set to materialize and dominate all of the others. Compelled to abduct three teenage girls led by the willful, observant Casey, Kevin reaches a war for survival among all of those contained within him -- as well as everyone around him -- as the walls between his compartments shatter.

SPLIT (2017) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty | Review date 25 January 2017
Pop Movee Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

In case audiences were wondering whether the critical and commercial success of M. Night Shyamalan’s 2015 film The Visit signalled a genuine return-to-form or a fluke of circumstance, in an otherwise downward spiralling career, Split confirms the Writer-Director’s re-emergence as one of Fantastique cinema’s preeminent storytellers. Like The Visit, Shyamalan opts for a small-scale, almost claustrophobic approach with Split, focussing largely upon James McAvoy’s performance that requires him to convince the viewer he has twenty-three separate identities existing within the one body; along with a soon-to-be twenty-fourth preparing to emerge and perpetrate heinous crimes upon three abducted teenage girls!

While it’s easy to get carried away with an actor’s performance in the scheme of a feature film’s path from development to release, the reason Split works is entirely dependent upon whether the viewer invests in James McAvoy’s portrayal of a character with multiple identities. Shyamalan is not silly. He wisely chooses to focus on a handful of the twenty-three personalities. Audiences are introduced to McAvoy’s identity-laden antagonist via Dennis, an Obsessive Compulsive who is afflicted by the desire to abduct and molest young teenage girls. At the beginning of the film, he kidnaps Anya Taylor-Joy’s Casey, Jessica Sula’s Marica and Haley Lu Richardson’s Claire from a suburban shopping centre car park in broad daylight. The three captive girls are soon introduced to Patricia, a middle-aged English woman, and Hedwig, a nine-year old boy. Casey tries desperately to manipulate the Hedwig personality into helping the girls, but each time she overestimates the level of assistance he is capable of and both Dennis and Patricia assert themselves to regain control in anticipation of the personality’s arrival.

The film’s first half plays out as a thrust and parry between the captor and the captured, with each girl trying to make a run for it, but it’s the film’s second half that provides a deeper exploration of McAvoy’s character, whose real identity is actually Kevin Wendell Crumb. Through Kevin’s therapist, Dr. Karen Fletcher, played by veteran entertainer Betty Buckley, the viewer learns that Kevin’s personalities are a result of psychological and physical trauma he suffered at the hands of his mother as a young boy. In parallel with Kevin’s story, young Casey’s backstory is slowly revealed through a hunting trip in the woods with her Father and Uncle. Shyamalan translates this part of his story with great care as the subject matter is deeply disturbing. Casey’s childhood misfortune becomes a source of strength and protection for her during the film’s climax as she is forced to face the emergence of Kevin’s twenty-fourth personality - The Beast - on her own!

It’s great to be able to say that Split is a continuation of the back-to-basics, highly-focussed movie-making that M. Night Shyamalan demonstrated to audiences in The Visit. Split is a more expansive story than The Visit, but the film’s visual tone is similar with a lot of ground-up photography employed to create maximum impact for McAvoy’s performance. There’s also a lot of close-up reaction shots that help heighten the claustrophobia of the girls imprisonment and the primary sets reflect the chaos going on within Kevin’s mind at any given time. On top of all of this, there’s the traditional Shyamalan “Rabbit from the hat” at the end of the film. Those who have followed Shyamalan’s career will nod appreciatively during the film’s closing credits and start to really think about what the previous 117 minutes was all about. With Split, Shyamalan may have just pulled a “Keyser Soze” and convinced his fans that everything he’s directed between 2000 and 2015 doesn’t exist…