Split

Let me start off by saying that I haven't really like Shyamalan's work since "Unbreakable", but I have to admit that this movie made me believe in his vision again. I gave him another chance after hearing so many people raving about this movie, and I'm glad I did. This is an excellently acted, directed and thought out movie. It's intense, funny at some parts, and it is incredibly well thought out. Don't listen to haters just because they don't like Shyamalan's movies. Check it out for yourself and make your own decision.

I was surprised to see that this movie was released last year (as I'm writing this) and I didn't heard about it, taking in consideration how promising the plot is.

Split is about three girls get kidnapped by a man with dissociative identity disorder (DID) that has 23 personalities. I have to say that this movie does not represent what DID really is and how people who struggle with it are, mainly because this movie gets a bit too fantastical sometimes. It doesn't try to be strictly realistic though, so it's an awesome thriller anyway.

The movie gives you chills since the very start with an awesome acting by James McAvoy and some seriously good still scenes. The overall scenes make you have a weird feeling, something it succeeds to transfer to the viewer that you probably won't be able to describe. That makes this thriller stand out in a good way.

Maybe Split makes a unrealistic representation of dissociative identity disorder, and that can be a big turnoff, but this is a great movie nonetheless.

James McAvoy gives what could have potentially been an award-worthy performance if it had appeared in a different film.

He plays a man with multiple personalities who kidnaps three young girls as a part of a plot two of the personalities have hatched to unleash a powerful and unstoppable identity. Betty Buckley, in a better performance than the role necessarily needed, plays a therapist working with him and who begins to unravel the alarming plot. Writer/director M. Night Shyamalan, who hasn't made a movie I've wanted to see since "Signs," crafts a nifty and effective thriller with three fourths of his film, and then sort of if not completely ruins it by taking his idea too far and pushing the supernatural elements to the point where we realize we're not even watching the same kind of movie we were at the beginning. This particular story, and especially McAvoy's performance, would have been compelling enough without Shyamalan's characteristic inability to understand when he's ruining his own premise.

Grade: B

What a remarkable film! The premise of the film seems quite superficial at first but as the layers are peeled back there's so much more beneath.

It's a horror film without special effects gore, an action flick without any car chases. A high-tension psychological thriller for viewers with active imaginations, who don't need to be spoon-fed every explanation.

The acting is top-notch, the script sympathetic, the cinematography and set fantastic, and the music/sound subtle enough not to be noticed, consciously, while building the tension inexorably. It's gripping, un-turn-away-able.

Seriously impressive. I don't give 10's lightly.

A fantastic performance by the film's star, James McAvoy is reason alone to watch this film. Every personality on display is distinct to the other, and he is so interesting to watch. Anya who was breath-taking in The Witch does a fine job here too. This is a film where M. Night Shyamalan reasserts himself as a serious director following a string of poor films. I absolutely cannot wait for the sequel and the conclusion of the Unbreakable series arriving in January. 8.5/10.