And so, Shyamalan returns to
form. For anyone who hasn’t yet found out
yet, Split is the sequel to Unbreakable. While I was initially a little skeptical of
the movie due to the portrayal of mental illness, this aspect really fixed the
problem for me. Kevin (James McAvoy)
isn’t a mental patient, he’s a super villain.
The premise of this movie, that a
man with multiple personalities has been taken over by three malevolent
personalities intent on creating a super-human amalgam, sounds utterly silly on
paper. It works largely because McAvoy
is a brilliant performer, who can signal with his body language exactly who
he’s supposed to be at any given moment.
We largely see the story of Kevin
from the outside looking in, as we follow two subplots. Dr. Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley), Kevin’s
psychiatrist, who begins to realize that his malevolent personalities have
taken over, and Casey Cooke (Anna Taylor-Joy), a victim kidnapped by “Dennis”
as a sacrifice for “The Beast.” While
Casey is one of three victims (the other two being played by Haley Lu
Richardson and Jessica Sula), the others largely exist as foils to her. Over the course of the film we realize that
this is not her first time in the role of a victim, and she alone realizes that
no empowerment mantra can fix the situation easily.
The leader of the three
personalities is Patricia. While she’s
both female and terrifying, I feel the movie largely avoids transphobia. She induces fear mainly from the disconnect
between her calm demeanor, and her brutal plans to literally feed the girls to
The Beast.
Her recruit, Dennis, really could
have been split into two characters. One
who was a sympathetic protector of Kevin, the first alternate personality, and
another who was a sexual predator. These
traits make it frequently unclear whether or not we’re supposed to sympathize
with Dennis as misguided, or view him as irredeemably evil.
The final “evil” personality is
Hedwig, a childlike being who has the power to take “the light” from any of the
personalities, and give it to any other.
Hedwig is a very difficult character to nail down. His nature creates the impression that he was
manipulated by Patricia, but there are times in which he takes actions that
seem to serve no purpose other than personal malice.
The trailer made it quite clear
that, yes, the Beast was real and did come.
If there’s a real shocker to the ending, however, it’s in The Beast’s
decision to let Casey go. Through a
series of flashbacks we find out that Casey has been living for years with her
sexually abusive uncle, following the death of her family. The Beast, upon realizing that Casey has been
abused, tells her to “rejoice” that she is “pure” because of her brokenness,
and by extension is worthy to live.
There’s arguably a strong implication that she will kill her uncle in
the near future.
The movie closes with Patricia,
Dennis, and Hedwig reflecting on how amazing The Beast is, as we look on and
wonder what will happen next. The ending
reminded me of Edward Norton’s The
Incredible Hulk, leaving us with some uncertainty whether the “monster” was
a purely malevolent entity. I do kind of
wonder what Shyamalan is thinking presenting a character who literally
cannibalized multiple people as morally grey.
The movie isn’t shocking or sickening,
but it is intense. It’s a film that I
certainly wouldn’t show to a child. With
the sequel, Glass, on the horizon,
I’m very eager to see what else M. Night has up his sleeve.
