The Broken Are the More Evolved

Split/Diary Entry #10

Welcome everyone to another edition of Diary of an Angry Film Nerd! Did anyone miss me? Well I missed being in front of this computer, so I guess I, in turn, missed all of you. So in that last few days since we have spoken, a couple things have been revealed by the wonderful people of Hollywood (sarcasm sensed?) and I would love to take a quick minute to discuss these topics. First is the trailer drop for Thor: Ragnarok I will have to admit that I wasn’t overly excited to see this film, but I was going to see it. Now that I have seen this teaser I can fully admit that I am garnering more excitement to see the direction that Taika Waititi is going to take this character. Given the more light-hearted tone of the film I am ecstatic that the third go round of Thor won’t take itself so seriously. Lastly is another trailer that was dropped this week and it is that of Atomic Blonde staring Charlize Theron and James McAvoy. All I really have to say about this is wow! A little John Wick coupled with a little A Long Kiss Goodnight, but either way Theron looks badass and I am now highly excited to see this film. I will place this links of these two trailers below for your viewing pleasure, but now on to my review of M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller, Split.

So Split tells the story of three young women (one of which is Anya Taylor-Joy) that have been kidnapped by a man named Kevin (James McAvoy). As the story progresses we learn that Kevin has 23 separate personalities and is preparing for a 24^th to awaken. Determined not to see what this latest personality is like Casey Cooke (Taylor-Joy) tries to find any way out of her prison and goes as far as trying to manipulate one of Kevin’s personalities.

Well Shyamalan has found his way back into our good graces with this intriguing thriller. Split, like it’s main character, has many layers to it that are very interesting. We have a character study of not only Kevin, but of Casey. We see a few of Kevin’s personalities and their motivation for kidnapping a couple high schoolers and on the same token we see why Casey is different from the other two. Casey is inverted and socially awkward, but becomes the hero of the story due to the psychological drama she has gone through in her life. Taylor-Joy expertly displays the layers to Casey’s psyche/character. I love the way she inserts herself as the hero by knowing something bad may happen to her and the other girls because something bad as happened to her. McAvoy is also so amazing in this film with his multiple personalities. I was most impressed with his take on Hedwig, who is a nine year old boy. The way that McAvoy displays a nine year old’s mind and actions were remarkable.

This film is classic Shyamalan, as it seems like he has come full circle with his career. The dark/ominous setting coupled with the flawed protagonist is what we have come to love about Shyamalan’s films. With that being said, I did find just a few minor grievances with the film. Gripe number one would be that I needed a little bit more explanation on the relationship Kevin has with his psychiatrist, Dr. Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley). During the course of the film only one of Kevin’s personalities is shown conversating with her…how did this one personality seem to have sole access to the doctor? Why is he more outstanding than the others? Speaking of Kevin’s personalities, and maybe these will be saved for a sequel, but why didn’t we see a little bit more of his other personalities. We get a list of them toward the end of the film and there are some intriguing names on that list like Mr. Pritchard. Why doesn’t he have a first name? I’m not one for sequels, but I think to flush all of this out there should be.

Despite my very minor complaints of this film, I highly recommend Split to fans of thrillers and especially fans of Shyamalan’s earlier work. This film ranks up there with his better films. Let us all pray that Shyamalan is back on track because I want more from him because there was always something just a little more to Shyamalan’s films (not just the twist endings) that always captured my imagination. Thanks for reading and please feel free to contact me.

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