Split (2017) [Blu-ray]
Horror | Thriller

While the mental divisions of those with dissociative identity disorder have long fascinated and eluded science, it is believed that some can also manifest unique physical attributes for each personality, a cognitive and physiological prism within a single being.

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 the others. Compelled to abduct three teenage girls led by the willful, observant Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy, The Witch), Kevin reaches a war for survival among all of those contained within himas well as everyone around himas the walls between his compartments shatter apart.

Storyline: When three girls are kidnapped by a man with 23 different personalities they have to work out which of those personalities will help them escape and which of those personalities will try to stop them. Written by jjmcmanusnbalshiite

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, April 5, 2017 A new M. Night Shyamalan movie is almost always an event, but not always for the same reasons. The director draws more attention than most of his peers, in large part because his career, to this point, seems split between three distinct timeframes. First, with The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs, it was "Wow!" and "How is he going to top that? Then with The Village and Lady in the Water, it was "This will be his comeback film!" And lately, with The Happening, The Last Airbender, and After Earth, the response has been "Oh, how the mighty have fallen." He made a mild comeback with The Visit, though that movie seemed to mark the beginning of the "nonchalance" phase. It's been ages, it seems, since Shaymalan was really on top of his game back in the late 1990s. But every movie has to be an event because there's truly not many better pure filmmakers out there. He's been a victim of poor material (much of it from his own hand) more than he has been poor craftsmanship behind the camera. Can his latest Psychological Thriller, Split, possibly bring audiences back into the fold, or have they had one too many bad-vibe visits to House Shyamalan?

Following a party at a Philadelphia-area restaurant, three teenage girls -- Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), Claire (Haley Lu Richardson), and Marcia (Jessica Sula) -- are kidnapped by a man they come to know as "Dennis" (James McAvoy). They're drugged and, when they awaken, find themselves in a strange place, perhaps a basement of some sort, with fresh drywall here, old brickwork there, and a spick-and-span bathroom off to the side. He's not hurting them, but they're locked inside and effort to find a way out. They quickly come to realize that their captor is one person, but an individual who engages multiple personalities in dress, speech, and cadence alike. As they plea to the more amenable of the personalities, they desperately search for their own way out, particularly as they begin to piece together the real reason they have been taken, sorted out from various clues given by the multiple personas they encounter.

When discussing the film, Shyamalan quotes Steven Spielberg who once said that "90% of directing is casting." If that's the case, Shyamalan must have breezed through making Split. James McAvoy delivers a transformational performance in the lead, not saying that as a pun on the movie's title but quite literally in his ability to fully realize any of the several characters he portrays throughout. And it's not just a change in voice or clothes or even attitude or approach. He finds a depth to each of the "characters," the purpose they play not just in the story but in the character's life. McAvoy never betrays the revolving door of personalities, refusing to give up on any of them and instead finding their own individual centers within the larger persona in the middle of it all. He's certainly helped by Shyamalan's writing and the foreknowledge of where the character is headed, and why, but the performance is incredibly nuanced, finely honed, and deeply understanding of how the various personalities play individually and collectively alike in shaping the character and driving the film towards its surprise ending and place in the Shyamalan canon.

Split is itself a movie with something of a split personality. Part kidnapping Chiller, part Horror film, part Survival picture, part Psychological Thriller, the film is Shyamalan's most fundamentally complex since his early successes with The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. The film is also both overtly exciting yet deeply metaphoric as it explores the very real manifestation of the most unseen, untenable parts of the human condition and the merging of the body and mind beyond established scientific limitations and exploring something deeper than even the titular multiple personality disorder. Shyamalan gives credence and credibility to the idea and pushes the boundaries further than they've been pushed before, but it's in the way he ties it all together in the final minutes, and in the closing moments in particular, that give it a serious shot in the arm, rearrange everything the audience thought it knew about the movie for the first 100 or so minutes, and it's suddenly something much more interesting in the larger world of M. Night Shyamalan. And if this is any indication, it's comeback time. Welcome back, Night.

Split isn't quite a return to the very top of Shyamalan's game, but it's his best film in some years and portends the comeback a filmmaker of his talents deserves. The movie is smart, edgy, and finds a nice balance between spoon-feeding the audience and keeping things interesting, surprising, and unique. McAvoy is terrific, the sound and cinematography are wonderful, and the movie maintains engagement for the duration, culminating in what is arguably the best twist yet in an M. Night movie. Universal's Blu-ray is of a high quality as well. Top-shelf video and audio are accompanied by a few supplements. Highly recommended.

[CSW] -3.3- Not much of a horror film, more like a thriller. This movie doesn't have any jump scares and that is one of the reasons that I like it. Very creepy and creative. I'm of two minds regarding M. Night Shyamalan. With all of his films I have never liked the ending with the exception of The Sixth Sense and this one was no exception. But he is a master at suspense, mood, foreboding, and interest (by which I mean waiting to get questions answered). All of his movies have an interesting take on a subject, in this case multiple personalities that can cause physical differences and manifestations. If he could just "stick" the ending all of his movies would be great… and this one would have been too.
[V4.5-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box


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