Split (2016)

Here’s the second installment of director and writer M. Night Shyamalan’s superhero trilogy, Unbreakable. The first had the same name, Unbreakable, and came out in 2000, starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson. The third was 2019’s Glass, with Willis and Jackson reprising their roles. Split is more of a supervillain movie. Superhero movies were not taken the way we understand them today until about 2008, with the release of The Dark Knight and Iron Man, but Unbreakable (the movie) has been discussed as an original forerunner, demonstrating the range possible with them. Fair enough. I saw Unbreakable when it was new, liked it, took the superhero element as a Shyamalan twist (set up by The Sixth Sense, I still look for brazen plot twists in all his pictures). Sixteen years is a long time to wait for a sequel and I must say I find all kinds of things about Split annoying. Start with the wanton use of the hoary old trope of multiple personality disorder, now called dissociative identity disorder (DID). It was made famous at least as long ago as 1960’s Psycho (Norman Bates, recall, suffered from it) and made even more famous by a 1976 TV movie starring Sally Field, Sybil. Note the Split tagline: “Kevin has 23 distinct personalities. The 24th is about to be unleashed.” It’s so old hat it doesn’t even look like a hat anymore. I feel like I also need to mention that a “split personality” was once the way schizophrenia was discussed, not DID. There are no surprises in this movie, at least if you’re as cynical as me. James McAvoy gets the plum role of every actor’s dreams and he’s pretty good at being Kevin (the outer shell others see), Barry, Dennis, Patricia, Hedwig, and maybe up to 20 others, including Mr. 24, known as “The Beast.” No, he’s not the X-Men character known as “Beast” (no “the”) but he does climb up and down walls like Spiderman. Seriously, McAvoy is good juggling all these roles, and notably with a good deal of skillful nuance when they speak to each other. Betty Buckley is also good as his misguided therapist inclined to minimize his extreme aggression. So is Anya Taylor-Joy as one of his victims trying to get away. There’s great suspense too: got to get the ammo, for example, got to load the gun. Hurry, he’s almost here. Run, run, run. Et cetera—oh, I should have mentioned, “et cetera” is a phrase favored by many of the two dozen, known collectively as “the Horde.” As usual with Shyamalan movies it’s pretty good as long as you don’t think very hard about it. But it’s so full of poppycock concept you almost have to think about it to try and make sense. But stop that. Stop thinking about it. I probably should have taken the time to look at Unbreakable again. Not sure I have the interest for Glass. Whose idea was a trilogy anyway?