‘Split’ review — James McAvoy gives the performance of his career

Split is an incredibly tense and well-made thriller that features fantastic performances by James McAvoy and Anya Taylor Joy.

M. Night Shyamalan is back, for better or worst. The last Shyamalan movie I watched was 2008’s The Happening, so you could understand my hesitance going into this movie. Although I heard mostly good things about his last movie The Visit, dissociative identity disorder or multiple personalities is a hard subject to pull off well. Of course, you get into the dilemma of portraying mental illness as a danger to society. However, Shyamalan toes the line gently with Split. 

The movie opens with a slow dolly shot of Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy) at a classmate’s birthday party in a suburban mall. She’s contemplative, uncomfortable, and obviously doesn’t belong. After her ride fails to show up, she hitches a ride with two of her classmates, Claire (Haley Lu Richardson) and Marcia (Jessica Sula). However, their driver, Claire’s father, doesn’t show up in the driver’s seat. As the camera menacing approaches the father packing gifts in the trunk, we realize that we are watching from the perspective of a malevolent force. A strange man (James McAvoy) steps into the car instead of Claire’s father. After knocking out Claire and Marcia, he turns to Casey, then we cut to the main title sequence.

This scene is a perfect study of the patience and grasp of tension Shyamalan has in this movie. He lets shots linger. Like when the mysterious stranger approaches the car or the opening shot of Casey. Coupled with the brilliant cinematography by Mike Gioulakis, who shot 2015’s It Follows to great success, the opening is an incredible practice in tension and visual storytelling, which is something that we haven’t seen from Shyamalan since 2002’s Signs.

And it’s not just the opening scene that is filled with tension. All of Split has this impressive slow-burning dread that underlies every scene. It makes you want to turn away from the screen. It’s a combination of the creative elements that Shyamalan was able to pull together that pulls it off. Specifically, the simple production design of the bunker, which feels like an endless maze of tunnels, the heavy bass of the score, the cinematography, and the performances come together to create an ominous mood. When we start getting into the meat of the story some of that goes away, but generally, the movie keeps tightening and tightening until the last 20 minutes.

The girls’ captor is revealed to have Dissociative Identity Disorder, which means 23 different personalities control this one body — a spirited nine-year-old, an obsessive-compulsive brute, a disciplined and proper English woman. The main alter, Barry is a fashion designer with a generally happy attitude and motivation to get past his condition. His scenes with his therapist Dr. Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley) have nearly as much tension as the scenes with the three girls as they attempt to escape from the bunker he brought them to. It’s difficult to talk about why the use of DID as a plot device is justified without edging into spoilers. However, this is a movie that is recontextualized by its ending — for the better.

James McAvoy is remarkable. Not only because he has to play a menagerie characters, but because the way he distinguishes between each is so specific. When he walks into a room you can tell just by his posture which alter he is. And when he becomes each alter, he inhabits them wholly in his speech, facial expressions, and even the way he moves his jaw. Though he’s certainly playing to the back of the theater, it works because of the recontextualization of the movie.

That’s not to take away from the other performances. Betty Buckley is marvelous and sure-footed as Dr. Fletcher and Anya Taylor-Joy gives a complex, yet nuanced performance as Casey. But you just can’t help but be both drawn in and terrified by McAvoy.

Split is built like a mystery that allows the audience to piece together the clues without tipping its ultimate hand.

We know and fully expect a plot twist in an M. Night Shyamalan movie. However, the question becomes whether it enhances or destroys the plot. And honestly, it does both. For those who are confused or put off by the movie’s

Up until the last 20 or so minutes, Split is a tense, tightly directed thriller that would probably have ended up among my favorite movies at the end of the year. It is still a really great movie, but the ending nearly takes all the momentum it had going. Does it make it a bad movie? No. It’s still a good movie. While Shyamalan is known for his self-indulgence – some low brow humor and of course an appearance in the movie – he shows restraint for most of the movie. However, nearly all of its success has to be put on James McAvoy who should hopefully finally get the roles and respect he deserves. If anything, watch Split for the masterclass in acting happening on the screen.

★★★ out of 5

Split is available on Blu-Ray and Digital HD on Amazon!