Split

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This one is often regarded as Syamalan's best film since 'Unbreakable', which is a very generous gap between films (about 15 years). I suppose that all depends on personal taste, but for my money, that's pretty accurate. Of course, when Shyamalan is at his very best, it really is the twist ending that puts that lovely, ripe, cherry on top of the already pretty good sundae. This film is no exception.

The film starts off by introducing us to a few teenage girls; the lead, Cassie Cooke (Anya Taylor-Joy), and her two best friends, Claire (Haley Lu Richardson) and Marcia (Jessica Sula). Claire, Marcia and Claire's father offer her a ride home after a party, only to have Claire's father knocked out, and his car taken over by Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), a man with Dissociative Identity Disorder. He kidnaps the three girls, and holds them captive, playing through several different personalities - particularly a "Dennis" and a "Patricia", who both seem to worship, and be awaiting the arrival of, something known only as "The Beast". The idea of holding the girls captive is basically so they can be food for whatever this "Beast" is.

Meanwhile, we also see Kevin's sessions with his therapist, Dr. Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley), who takes a very keen interest in Kevin's disorder, believing that the different personalities mean much more than just a malfunction of the brain. One prime example is that one of Kevin's personalities actually needs insulin for his diabetes while none of the others do.

As the film moves forward, we get to know his personalities, the girls make several efforts to escape their captor, and we remain ever curious as to what this beast is supposed to be. For me, the initial twist was something easy to see coming a mile away (I'm scratching spoilers for this post, just because 'Glass' exists and all the secrets are out in the open by now). Basically, the beast is one of his personalities that ends up being real instead of a figment of Kevin's imagination. The belief of the Beast being all in his head basically comes from the Beast being able to do extraordinary things like climb walls, and have extraordinarily strength.

As we all know at this point (unless you've just been under a rock for the last couple of years), the twist that MAKES the movie is that this ends up taking place in the 'Unbreakable' universe, once we see David Dunn (Bruce Willis) in a coffee shop, referring to Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson - not appearing in this film). It was easily one of Shyamalan's best twists ever, turning this thriller into a superhero movie, much like 'Unbreakable' ended up being a drama that ended up being a superhero movie. Of course, this sets things up for 'Glass'.

On a personal level, I actually really liked this one. Syamalan isn't always my cup of tea, but my God, when he knocks it out of the park, he really does knock it out of the park. 'The Sixth Sense' will probably always be my favorite of his, but 'Unbreakable' and 'Split' are in very close proximity. It's unfortunate to read that so many have thus far found 'Glass' to be a bit of a wreck in comparison. But with that said, I haven't seen it quite yet, so here's hoping I just see it as a "weaker-number-3-film" in a trilogy. I can't say Im surprised though, as 'Unbreakable' and 'Split' pretty much covered the twists that lead to 'Glass', so where do we go from there? I guess I'll find out soon enough.

4/5

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