Movie Review - Split

   It's time to review Split... no, not the new gaming console Nintendo's announced. The James McAvoy movie where he's got multiple personalities. Yeah, that one. Seriously, what's up with this deluge of crappy one-word titles for movies nowadays? Pretty much everyone I mentioned this movie to asked “which one is that?” You know the situation is dire when your one-word titles are hindering the reputation and publicity of your freakin' movies! Bottom line: stop being so lazy with your titles!

   Rant over. Let's review the movie already.

   My friends, what we have here is an actual good movie from the once-awesome-but-then-for-the-longest-time-pretty-sucky director M. Night Shyamalan. It's true, the man delivers what I think is his first good movie since 2000's Unbreakable, the spiritual predecessor to this film. And his direction here is in fine form. He does some stylish looking shots, but not to an arrogantly overbearing degree that was seen in 2010's The Last Airbender or 2013's After Earth. In Split Shyamalan makes frequent use of extreme closeups to instill a sense of claustrophobia, reminding us that the characters are trapped. There's also a lot of shots that have the scene's menacing force just off-screen or blurry shots for when a character is disoriented. Both techniques effectively heighten a scene's suspense. And while Syamalan's usual trademark twist is missing from this effort, he does squeeze in a director cameo.

   The plot is about three teenage girls who are kidnapped by Kevin Wendell Crumb, a mentally disturbed man with 23 different personalities in his head. The girls try to figure out how to escape, while one of them, Casey, might be uniquely suited to exploit Kevin's mental condition. It's a Hitchcockian premise that has a lot of potential. It kind of reminds me of 1990's Misery, and that's a good thing. It plays out rather well, though there are a few hiccups: the scene with the doctor lecturing at a medical conference is a little boring, plus the girls never try to swarm Kevin (which I'm sure is probably the first thing that most people would try in this situation). The final act may be a little too goofy for some; Kevin basically becomes a cannibal Spider-Man. Oh well, there are worse Spider-Man movies out there. The movie ends with a call back to Unbreakable, which if you haven't seen that movie (like me) will come off as a big WTF moment.

   Perhaps the main selling point of Split is James McAvoy's performance. He plays no less than six personalities in this film, from a nerdy germophobe to an innocent nine year old boy, all with an air of uneasy creepiness. I can't think of a better actor they could've gotten for this role. The other actors all do a fine job, especially Anna Taylor-Joy as Casey.

   On the whole Split is a decent thriller with an intriguing plot, commendable acting, and cool direction. It's hard to believe that such an effective film was made on a budget of only $9 million. If it's a flick that sounds interesting to you, then I'd recommend giving it a try.

Grade: three and a half out of five.