After the release of Signs and Unbreakable, M. Night Shyamalan went a created more films with a mixed bag of responses. The Last Airbender, After Earth, and The Happening, were all critically panned films that are widely regarded as movies that should have never been made. Others, such as Signs or The Village, were slightly better received, but still a drop in quality from those earlier pieces. This is why the success of 2016's Split came out of the blue.
The psychological thriller looks at a character with Dissociative Identity Disorder. In this case, this means a character that has multiple identities. James McAvoy plays the main character(s) of the film, having around 23 different identities (though only 8 or so are on display for the film), one of which has gone ahead and kidnapped three young women.
The film follows James McAvoy's character Kevin, as he struggles to control his personalities, his psychiatrist Dr. Karen Fletcher (played by Betty Buckley) who is trying to help Kevin, and the three girls who are trying to escape from their captors.
Now McAvoy does an exemplary job in this role. If you were to look at the plot from an objective standpoint, with the wrong actor, there is so much room for this film to be a flop. But McAvoy gives his all in this role. Having to not only provide an engaging and authentic performance as a fictional character, but McAvoy must also do so with multiple personalities, all of which require their own distinct dress codes, voices, mannerisms, and physical attributes so that the story can flow properly without the need for constant explanation.
Anya Taylor-Joy is rather captivating in her performance and is the only other character that has any form of character development, her two co-actresses Hayley Lu Richardson and Jessica Sula, are far less genuine in their reactions to the events of the film, and end up destroying a lot of the tension that Shyamalan is trying to create. There are some issues with the method in which Shyamalan tries to convey the backstory of Taylor-Joy's character; with frequent flashbacks, that are disjointed and don't fit in with the surrounding plot lines.
Split has some great cinematography, from It Follows cinematographer Mike Gioulakis, who creates a wonderfully claustrophobic environment, and builds suspense and tension with creeping movement in the camera shots. The choice in the composer for the musical score was also well appointed (West Dylan Thordson) with nice subtle additions to the film's audio landscape.
The film works great as both an M. Night Shyamalan film and psychological thriller because of how much it makes you think. You are trying to determine how things could go throughout the film, and James McAvoy's performance makes it so hard to predict. Multiple personalities add a layer of difficulty when predicting behaviour, but when the personalities are aware of each other and can control, or disguise themselves, the possibilities increase exponentially.
All of this occurs in a limited space, and still manages to allow the odd bit of humour, without losing the tension; Split is incredibly well balanced.
Granted, the film does take a rather non-sensical turn towards the end, and while it was hinted at throughout the film, it is not subtle at all forcing cutting all of those possibilities down immensely. It lacks the playful curiosity and inconclusive premise that the viewer was given in 2000's Unbreakable. Instead, we are directed towards something.
That final act of the film is polarizing to many spectators upon the first viewing, but after the end-credits scene, (would it be a Shyamalan movie without a twist?) it changes the way you interpret everything that you have seen and clears the way for a sequel.
I would have loved a bit more mystery and subtlety, to have been added to the film, but knowing that there is a third instalment on the way, we Split needed that certainty and confidence to ensure a strong context for the crossover.