Split (2016): Muddled Brilliance

M. Night Shyamalan's movies all operate in the same way, as thrillers with familiar-enough trimmings that get injected with one absolutely unique element. Take the relatively more recent Trap, for instance, a fugitive-hunting movie where the main protagonist is the fugitive. Split draws within the same lines as a kidnapping movie with an absolutely unique kidnapper. It's also one of Shyamalan's better movies, mainly thanks to James McAvoy's powerhouse performance as a troubled man who can't make up his mind on who exactly he is. This movie isn't even necessarily about him, but his unpredictable and well-balanced mannerisms steal the show, nonetheless.

You might call Claire and Marcia the mean girls of their school. Casey is something of a third wheel to them, a purer soul than either of her friends and less prone to gossip about a boy's eyebrows. What none of them are is prison-break material, but they're going to have to adapt quickly if they want to break out of the underground maze they all awake to find themselves locked in. Running the maze is that strange man with 23 separate personalities: at times, he's Hedwig, an innocent and curious man with the temperament of a 9-year-old boy, and at others, he's Dennis, a manipulative and psychopathic pervert with a penchant for watching girls dance in their underwear. Other times, he's everything in between, and the only thing he hasn't yet been is The Beast, an unseen and ominous 24th personality that will emerge to terrorize the girls if they can't escape before the metaphorical fuse in his mind burns out.

You've seen this movie before, but not like this. McAvoy's performance is pound-for-pound the best I've seen this year, and he plays 23 different characters with just as many distinct personalities. His range of inflection is impossibly wide, and beyond that, his personality changes are subtle and mostly able to avoid easy cliches. Hedwig is my favorite persona, so fundamentally different from all the other personalities that this mysterious and otherwise menacing man becomes frightening in his sudden, startling innocence. You really never know what he's going to do when he comes back, and that's a scary thought.

There are a lot of good things to say about Split, things I can't say about even other thrillers, but the biggest downside of this movie about personalities is that the three kidnapped girls don't have one. Beyond memories of past interests such as karate and a handful of shared antics at school, Claire, Marcia, and Casey are frustratingly shallow. I don't fully understand why this prison break movie included three protagonists when one character with a slew of different interests and quirks could have done just as well. Their personalities are as difficult to connect with as their plight is easy to sympathize with. I felt as though I were rooting for a collection of animated Kohl's mannequins, and though I jest when I say this, such a spectacle would have at least injected their personalities with something noteworthy.

Split is a gimmick movie, sometimes at the expense of its own integrity. That's not completely a bad thing. It is unique and occasionally thoughtful, though vital elements like character development get lost in the dust of novelty. One of my favorite things about it steers the movie through thick and thin, and that thing is the inclusion of one final, foreboding, and as-of-yet unseen personality, referred to simply as The Beast. This promise of future violence kept me involved in the movie while also keeping it from rambling off aimlessly to Lord knows where.

This movie bakes in a lot of annoying elements, but the merciful thing about it is that it knows how it wants to end. While it's getting there, it traverses an unpredictable highway of ups and downs that feels like you're riding a roller coaster threatening to fly off the rails at any moment; rest assured, Split pulls safely into the station with an imperfect but emphatic assuredness. Its truly brilliant elements outweigh the baggage, and its sharp, sinister endgame cuts through the fat of its occasional shortcomings like a hot knife through butter. This is the type of movie you watch for the sake of the ending, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Sometimes, this is Hedwig's movie. Other times, it's Dennis's. The other 21 personalities notwithstanding, McAvoy turns them all into a cohesive force that is more than willing to go to war with the less desirable elements of Split and win.

Split - 7/10

Matthew 4:23-24