Nowadays we are bombarded by such a number of moving images in all shapes and sizes, that it is becoming increasingly difficult for one of them to really grab our attention. Still, well-told stories always find their way. How many of them, however, remain with us in time and how many fades not only days, but even hours after their end ...? More recently, I have been trying to grasp these visual stories, not only by their direct impact, but by their long-lasting resonance, both emotionally and intellectually. For this reason, I decided to write my text for "Split" almost days after I watch it, and to my greatest pleasure I discovered that the power of author's story keeps excite me now even more strongly. After the big failures of his last few films ("The Last Airbender", "Earth: New Start") and the subsequent spills and Golden Raspberries, M. Night Shyamalan emerges from the bottom and returns to his good shape with the multi-layered and solid "Split".
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Three classmates, Casey, Claire and Marcia were kidnapped in the middle of the day by Kevin (James McAvoy) suffering from a disociative personality disorder. In one of the movie trailers we see a great deal of this scene and we know what will happen, but that does not change its chilling impact. With this striking start, Shyamalan manages to get our attention and raise a very high bar for what will follow. Does he handle the challenge? Somewhat misleadingly advertised as a horror / thriller, the film is actually more. Here, a film about kidnapping, psychological drama, claustrophobic thriller, science and comic film (although not based on a comic book) is skilfully combined. With a duration of 117 minutes, "Split" is the director's longest work and it works for him. The film is very mature using its time, spreading the tension almost equally. The moments in which it is absent give us scientific depth and reinforce what will follow. As we can easily conclude, James McAvoy is the brightest star of the film, with Kevin Wendell Krum, who has 24 different personalities. For a movie with a similar hero and theme, the most natural and normal thing would be the idea of shattering with a bang and crashing, leaving us a sense of mess and unnecessary pushing. Instead, Shyamalan and McAvoy create a precise and picturesque picture of mental illness. Not in a painfully-realistic-hysterical way that we would encounter in a social story. Not in the harsh, naturalistic and unrepentant way that we see the McAvoyian bipolar disorder in the British crime drama "Filth". Instead, it uses the masterful filmmaking approach, moving along the thin line between science and speculative fiction - familiar waters where the director has often floated in his more respectable works. McAvoy's performance is so enigmatic, captivating and impressive that it can hardly be described in words. If such an oxymoron exists as a minimalist expression, then this would be the most accurate definition of the Scottish accomplishment. Shifting faces and images in seconds (sometimes even in a frame), McAvoy amazes the way he exposes his palette of colors, leaving a strong and authentic feel for each one. In his game he can not feel grimaces or unnecessary gesticulation, but instead the impression of quite different images, with different accents, different articulation and different screen presence, but each of them - with equal credibility and disciplined restraint in his madness. Even more astonishing is how the actor gets the role just 40 days before shooting (replacing Joaquin Phoenix, who is Shyamalan 's first choice).
Of course, the merits of the impact of this role are far from just James McAvoy. Such a hero and performance can only thrive in a suitable environment with the exact interacting forces, and "Split" is full of such. On a narrative level, the credibility of Kevin is largely due to the two main characters - the kidnapped Casey (Joy) and Dr. Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley) - Kevin's personal psychologist.Casey behaves more reasonably and adequately than her girlfriends, especially given the difficult situation they are in, and her personal story, revealing itself gradually and in parallel through retrospective scenes, helps her to do better than her classmates. Her restraint, attention and swallowing horror was played with an enviable mastery by Anna Taylor-Joy, who began to become a young queen of the genre. On the other side is Dr. Fletcher, who holds regular sessions with Kevin. She is the only person who knows all his personalities and can distinguish them. The psychologist is dedicated to investigating the case and the state of Kevin, from which he understands and confirms new things about the disease he shares through conference internet talks with the world. She does not treat her patient as a inferior person, but on the contrary, considers him as something more. She nourishes and believes in him, which is actually the true antagonist in history. A strong impression leaves deeper the human performance of Buckley. In much of the film, Guilakis' camera slowly and mysteriously "crawls", which in an adequate combination with Tordson's music takes us from equilibrium in a murderous-fascinating way. This is the operator's first job with Shyamalan , but most of the director's trademarks are available. There is something special about the way his characters look slightly in the sides of the camera. Glances filled with fear, wonder, and strong emotion, as if they were not looking at other human beings, but as a physical incarnation of the unknown.
"Split" is a smart, clean and very mature film, without the typical genre twists, which rely heavily on dramaturgy, directing and acting rather than shock and horror. Without going into more detail, I will only imply that if Shyamalan, like me, is a weakness, then the rich atmospheric fiction of his film (combined with the above-mentioned trademarks) will surely lead you to his other work from the same "comic" universe ....