Back To His Familiar Ways?

From almost the very beginnings of cinema, the notion of ‘stardom’, within the many actors and actresses that have come and gone to grace the silver-screen, has been one of the medium’s defining characteristics. In this day-and-age, it serves to be a construct that plays a special role in the medium’s interaction with other parts of the media; attracting a wide-range of different audiences to market a particular film through the stature of a particular individual. However, while the relationship which cinema has forged with it’s audiences has frequently been defined by the status of past and present film actors and actresses, it has to be said that the film directors filmic input and their discussions on specific controversial talking-points relating to cinema, have equally remained to be a primary marketing tool to place audiences in viewing. While non of his antics outside of film-making have ever conjured-up a perspective of his self-being, The most noticeable case for this is with the film director of M. Night Shyamalan, since he possesses a filmography that has its fair share of ups & downs. From his early and praised thriller qualities within his films of The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs, to the truly abysmal features of The Happening, After Earth and the unbearable The Last Airbender, it’s clear to see how Shyamalan strayed away from creating psychologically challenging demanding filmic pieces that lingered in your mind-set long after watching. However, with an eerily beaming and menacingly lunatic performance from the rather diverse James McAvoy and a premise that constricts the traditional thematic notions one might see in an old-fashioned exploitation flick, has Shyamalan returned to his own cognitive ways? Or does his new film of Split fall short in its effort to be mentally imposing?…

Plagued throughout with mysterious and though-provoking undertones, Split centres around three teenage girls, Claire, Marcia and outsider Casey, who are abducted by “Dennis”, one of the 23 split personalities inhabiting the body of Kevin (James McAvoy), who suffers with severe dissociative identity disorder. With the film going back-and-forth from the perspective of the three girls,who are trying to escape from the cellar that they’ve been placed in, and Kevin who frequently visits his psychiatrist, will providence be bestowed upon the three heroines? Or, will the emergence of a new and frightful 24th personality rapture Kevin’s inner-self?…

If anyone managed to catch a mere glimpse of this films first trailer back in the summer of 2016, then you’ll know that the main focal point that people will be addressing firstly with M. Night Shyamalan’s Split, is the transparent performance that James McAvoy presents as the character of Kevin; since he’s performing a role that frequently moves from one persona to another in a disturbing and minacious fashion. Known mostly for his portrayal as Professor X in the many X-Men films that come about in recent years, James McAvoy is a versatile actor that’s delved into many distinctive roles with such enthusiasm and attention to detail where it’s needed the most. His performance as the neurotic Bruce Robertson in Jon S. Baird’s Filth, which included certifiable sequences of him indulging in drugs, alcohol and sex, is a perfect indication of his willingness to pursue roles that others might wince and walk-away from and how underrated he is amongst the vast array of performers there are. In the case of his latest role of Kevin and the other personalities he boldly demonstrates on the silver-screen in this film, it’s hard to fathom how this film would have worked if someone like McAvoy played his part as he did. Indeed, in the many stellar and convincing performances that he’s conveyed to us on many recent occasions, McAvoy here presents to us an execution of acting that stands out to be one of the reasons why Split is worth watching. Each of the identities that he displays to the viewer, particular in the main-stay personalities of “Dennis”, “Patricia” and “Hedwig”, are distinguishable and as instinctive as each other through the precise manoeuvring of the facial and body movements and the frenzied voice tones of each of the facade’s that are believable and committed. While James McAvoy’s performance isn’t followed up with a secondary cast that lacks any sought of captivation and devotion within a premise that requires compelling performances, particularity in the form of the psychiatrist (played by Betty Buckley) who cheaply resides in needless exposition segments that could have been filtered throughout the run-time of the film, Anya Taylor-Joy’s involvement as the character of Casey, who’s attention is much more focused than the other two teenage girls captured, fits in line with Split’s and Shyamalan’s vision. Even though her previous performance in Morgan was neglected to properly development her characterisation, Joy’s endeavour of said role was one of the best parts of that film and equally re-enacts the same subdued and ‘untrustworthy’ nature in the Robert Eggers The Witch. Through her role as as the self-conflicted and ‘loner’ of Casey, there was not only the unprincipled edge that she promisingly conveys through her subdued look and the way she reacts to whatever the other two captured girls are doing in trying to escape, but there was a lot to discover in terms of her background that is smartly interjected within the clear-cut structure of the story; which mercurially impacts on our need to continually watch and learn more of what’s going on with the scenario and learn why the characters feel the way they do.

One of the more interesting filmic constructs to take note of within Shyamalan’s attempt of moulding a compelling psychological thriller that makes rightly think about the events that unfolded in Split, is the constrained and claustrophobic cinematography which manages to rightly capture the sinister moments of suspected dread. Applying the camera-craftsmanship of Mike Gioulakis, the same person who was responsible for applying minimalist and suspenseful fluid camera techniques in David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows, Split stands-up to be one of the better looking Shyamalan films. Combined with the musical score which appropriately builds-up the expected tension in the necessary moments of unease, particularly expressed in the latter sequences of the feature, the cinematography has a continual knack of fluidly interacting with the movement of the characters; visually communicating this sense of uneasy forward momentum that Split is progressively trying to convey and echoing the camera techniques that are witnessed in Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs. 

As much as Shyamalan has crafted a visually intriguing scenario that see’s James McAvoy perform one of his best roles, it has to be said that Split upholds a few flaws that put this perspective of Shyamalan returning to old familiar filmic ways, as many critics and reviewers have already stated, into question. One of the biggest concerns that certainly felt out of place in terms of the type of film that Split is trying to be, is the threaded inclusion of humour in what’s supposed to be a psychological-thriller. Indeed, with the fact that you have McAvoy playing an unhinged and broken man who possesses within him numerous personalities that can come out at any-time, with one of those specifically being a 9 year-old boy called “Hedwig”, it’s understandable that audience members are going to witness comic-relief moments that correlates with the absurd elements to the character of Kevin. However, the placement of these quips, which are placed in the film to break-away from the tension of the scenario that the three teenage girl characters, generally feel forced and out-of-place for a film that’s meant to be centralising on the main issue at hand. As highlighted before in discussing the performances that both McAvoy, especially, and Amy Taylor-Joy both give in providing a tense yet believable atmosphere in Split, the secondary performances of the two other girls of Claire and Marcia, who are the two other characters stuck with Casey within Kevin’s cellar, don’t assuredly match with the contained atmosphere that Shyamalan is trying to achieve. Without spoiling much of the important sequences, both of these female roles don’t necessarily serve a fundamental purpose as events proceed. Quite honestly, they’re just involved in the film to invigorate the ‘pleasurable needs’ of Kevin which is tiring to see within a genre such as this one. For a tale that delves into the identity of s singular person, it would have been intersting to see only Casey be the only victim who gets abducted; since she’s the only other real person that is personified through appealing flashbacks and correlates to the situation that she faces with Kevin. Their roles are undeniably useless and not needed whatsoever.

Considering the fact that his filmography throughout the past decade has seen him make some of the most head-bagging and awkward films known to existence (yes, I was referring to the worst adaptation of all time in The Last Airbender), M. Night Shyamalan, in many ways, has returned to his earlier routes and has created a constricted psychological thriller in Split that can boast in it’s efforts to create a tense ride through the acting efforts of James McAvoy. Indeed, Split isn’t a disaster; it’s finely all over the place as isn’t quite as effective and meaningful as it should be for something which possesses a good premise and staunching performances from both McAvoy and starlet Amy Taylor-Joy. For many Shyamalan devotees, it’ll be enough to be truly engrossed in, since Split is the first film ,since Shyamalan’s previous feature of Signs, where there isn’t an overabundance in too much expansive story-telling; everything that is permitted is simply dealt to have an impactful meaning… and that’s not even counting the surprise of the final shot… 😏

With that, I think it’s time for me to end. As always everyone, thank you for reading my latest film review in Split and I hope you’ve all enjoyed the read!! 😄. If anyone has an opinion on either my review or the film itself, please feel free to drop a comment down below. Next week, being that Valentines day is coming within the next week or two, I’m definitely thinking about doing a Film Blog that involved my pick of the best romantic films that I’ve watched. Personally, I’m not really the type of person who goes out of my own way to watch these types of films, but I thought it would something different to do!! My alternative review for next week could also be my continuation of the Marvel Film Review series that I started last year, which would see me discuss Sam Raimi’s last Spiderman film in Spider-Man 3, so expect to see this if my other idea doesn’t come into fruition!! Non the less, thank you again to everyone for reading this week’s Blog Post and I’ll see you all next week!! Have a nice day and weekend!! Adieu!! 😁😎✌

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ – Alex Rabbitte