Split review: M. Night Shyamalan returns with Split, but which past project is it closer to – The Sixth Sense or After Earth?
Read our full Split review below.
In Split, three teenage girls, Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), Claire (Haley Lu Richardson) and Marcia (Jessica Sula) are abducted by a peculiar man. As if being held captive wasn’t stressful enough, they soon discover that ‘Kevin’ shares his mind with a host of other personalities, some friendly, others not so much. The girls have to band together to break out, relying on Kevin’s kinder incarnations, but can any part of Kevin be trusted?
M. Night Shyamalan has had a lot to prove over recent years. He first burst onto the circuit with supernatural head-spinner The Sixth Sense. He followed that with the equally impressive Unbreakable and Signs. Then something happened and things started to go downhill, with 2013’s After Earth the lowest ebb of his career. In 2015, The Visit proved he still had magic, but it unfortunately seems that it was fleeting as Split really is a bit of a let down.
Weighed down by a hefty 117 minute run-time, Split feels like a story that could be better crafted within a shorter time frame. Things lag in places; plot elements are unnecessarily repeated, and Shyamalan’s obligatory cameo is entirely unneeded. Shave off twenty or so minutes and you’d have a svelte, sinister psychological thriller. As it is, Split is weighted and drawn out, spelling everything out to the viewer; sometimes mystery is better.
The other big point of contention is that the film was sold on the hook of a man with over twenty personalities. However, the film actually only offers us a small handful, with only a mere three getting any decent screen time. The result is that, rather than seeing James McAvoy having to stretch himself to show all the subtleties between personalities, we just get a Jekyll and Hyde type performance. McAvoy does a commendable job with each persona, but there’s clearly an over reliance on costume to signify to audiences who Kevin is at any one time.
Where Split succeeds is with Anya Taylor-Joy‘s Casey. This is a modern day take on the final girl, one that for once offers an interesting spin on the ‘damaged child’ trope. She made a name for herself with her turn in last year’s The Witch and her performance in Split demonstrates exactly why she’s worthy of that EE BAFTA Rising Star Award nomination. Despite Black Phillip not being around to help her this time around, she is still a joy to watch, and definitely holds her own against McAvoy.
Sinister and tense in places, Split builds a nice atmosphere during the opening third, the momentum sadly wearing off as the story unravels. It also excessively spoon-feeds the audience which will infuriate those familiar with the genre. A solid three-star movie, Split is well worth a look, if only to see what a modern Thomasin looks like.
Split review by Kat Hughes, January 2017.
Split is released across the UK from Friday 20th January 2017.
