Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. The Secret Screenings at Fantastic Fest are always buzzed about. Sometimes we get Mel Gibson popping up to show an in-the-works cut of Apocalypto, sometimes we get a DTV movie and sometimes we get a little heard of foreign genre film. No matter what the carrot is at the end, everybody talks about the stick.
This year the speculation went from Rogue One to Doctor Strange to Ben Wheatley's Free Fire, the latter of which the most likely since Wheatley's a Fantastic Fest alum and his new film just tore the roof off of TIFF.
Turns out it was none of those and an out of left field world premiere hit us instead: M. Night Shyamalan's SPLIT. The film doesn't open until January 2017, so you know Universal and Blum House are confident in it if they're letting it screen, with no strings like a press embargo, three months early.
And when you see the movie you'll understand why they have that confidence... and when you see the final 20 seconds you'll understand why they really wanted to surprise us at FF with this title. There's no way they can keep this under wraps for three months, but I'm not going to be the one to ruin the surprise.
And it is a surprise. It's not some out of left field Shyamalan special twist. It's not one of those “but it's really modern day!” or “aliens hate water!” or “Bruce Willis was a ghost the whole time!” kind of twists, but it has the same effect as the best of those in that it forces you to reevaluate everything you just watched and guarantees the second viewing is going to be seen through a different lens than the first.
But enough tip-toeing around the end of this movie, how about we talk about all the rest of it?
If you've seen the trailer you'll know this is a story about a man with D.I.D., or multiple personality disorder, who kidnaps three girls and holds them hostage. We actually hardly ever see the main character here since he has so many different personalities that are vying for “the light.” The way it's described in the movie each of his many personalities are essentially sitting in a circle in his mind with only one being able to step into the light at one time. When that happens the rest of the personalities don't know what is said or done, but essentially talk among themselves.
Sometimes the person at the forefront is a strict, but empathetic woman, sometimes it's a nervous, but strong man with OCD, sometimes it's a 9 year old boy that loves dancing to rap music.
The conflict here is two-fold. You have the conflict within Kevin's body as his many personalities wrestle with control and a weird kind of coup is going on. He's not strictly a bad person and even his more violent personalities all have multiple sides to them. There's a sense that even they are doing what's right, but unfortunately part of what's right for them includes the kidnapping of these young women for some very specific reason.
Anya Taylor-Joy (of THE WITCH fame) plays the main girl, Casey. She's a bit of an outcast, the weird introverted girl at her high school. The two girls she's nabbed with aren't really her friends. They're popular and pampered and we get a glimpse at Casey's life and it's pretty far from pampered.
She's the first one of the group to figure out what's going on with their captor and the only one that uses her brain to manipulate some of the different personalities.
The film itself is pretty damn good, but the main criticisms I have about it are centered around Casey's character. She's well performed by Taylor-Joy and has an interesting and tragic backstory, but the way it's presented you think it's leading to something bigger for her. There's not a button on her story that is needed after taking us through all that darkness. I can't say too much more without getting into spoilers, but it just seems like Shyamalan is building towards something with her that is just kind of dropped in the final act and I felt a tad unsatisfied with her character.
James McAvoy gets all the props I can possibly give him here. It's a brave, dedicated and incredibly layered performance of not just the dozen+ distinct personalities that reside within Kevin, but how they at times mix together. There are a few instances where one of his personalities is masquerading as another. Think of it like a chocolate/vanilla swirl soft serve. Two different flavors laying together neatly (and sometimes not so neatly).
This is a hell of a showcase for McAvoy and he absolutely destroys it, jumping headfirst into the role(s).
Shyamalan's fascination with D.I.D. makes for an actually pretty great starting point for a thriller. There are mentions in the film of others with this condition showing bizarre traits. Like one of the personalities develops diabetes and needing insulin shots, but when the personality isn't in control the body actually acts differently, producing insulin again. There are cases of a blind person developing sight again because one of the personalities can see.
The power of the brain and the chemistry of a human body is fascinating material and Shyamalan uses it for all its worth here, with the threat of “The Beast” looming large throughout. This is a new personality that is feared by most of the others. Is all this talk of body and brain chemistry changing from personality to personality is true, what could the arrival of this new personality actually mean? Is it all in Kevin's mind or will there be some actual transformation that takes place?
All of that is great material and reminds me of a more inventive restrained Shyamalan that I fell in love with starting at The Sixth Sense and going through Unbreakable and Signs.
The movie isn't perfect. Like I said earlier I think he drops the ball a little bit with the main heroic lead and his third act finale is a little low on payoff for all the build up, but I have zero issues with the central conceit and how McAvoy plays the main character. It's an incredibly well-shot, restrained and oddly respectful film. They don't treat mental disease as schlocky as you'd expect from this subject matter. Kevin turns out to be the most sympathetic character in the movie.
Split's a ballsy movie that has a hell of a post-script. I highly recommend giving it a shot when it hits theaters this coming January.
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter
