![]() ![]() Kevin suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), which medically means that his body chemistry actually changes depending on which personality is in control at the moment. Luckily, McAvoy puts on an acting tour de force, and arguably the best performance of his career to date. There are movies that rely heavily on actors to carry the brunt of the storytelling work, but with Split, if the main character was cast incorrectly, no matter how talented the actor may have been, the movie would crumble. Above all that, however, is the acting of one James McAvoy. The film is completely engrossing thanks to the exhilarating storytelling and direction, beautiful art design and stunning cinematography and camerawork. What I will say is that Split is some of Shyamalan’s best work to date. It’s easy to go into more details about the plot, but really, it’s much more entertaining to experience it all first-hand without knowing much going in. Some of these personalities have kidnapped three teenage girls and are holding them captive, and some of his other personalities want to stop the others from going down this dangerous path they’ve taken. Split, stars James McAvoy as Kevin, a man with 23 different personalities. With Split, it’s that top tier storytelling through both script and visuals that stands out front and center. ![]() But where Shyamalan shines, and what saves him from fully falling into the “I know there’s a twist, so I’m on alert waiting for it” trap is that he’s quite a masterful storyteller more often than not. Audiences expect something major to happen in the third act of his films that they wouldn’t normally be preemptively expecting with any other writer/director. That’s sort of the double-edged sword with Shyamalan, as his name is synonymous with plot twist. And let’s be honest, if you’re waiting for a twist, or know one is coming, it’s much more likely that it can be figured out early on, which kind of ruins the experience. But now I’m going into the film expecting this jaw-dropping twist that I’ll never see coming, and it puts my radar on alert from the very beginning. Sure, maybe it left that person stunned because they were one of the first to see it and had no expectations going in. That’s one of the main reasons I hate when advertisements for movies use critical praise quotes along the lines of, “…with a twist that you’ll never see coming!” or, “…a jaw-dropping twist that will leave you stunned!” ![]() While it may work the first few times out, it’s hard to shock and entertain audiences if they’re almost always waiting for the twist to happen, or trying to figure it out from the moment the movie begins. And from there his name beside a movie basically meant, “just wait for the twist at the end!” From there he brought audiences Unbreakable and Signs, which are two of his more popular films, even though not everyone enjoyed the twists they brought. In 1999 he arrived with a bang in a film that included the twist that blew minds across the globe with The Sixth Sense. Night Shyamalan hasn’t had the most consistent career. ![]()
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