Split

Disclaimer:

The movie I’m looking at this week is rated: PG-13

Be aware that some content in this film will not be suitable for younger audiences.

Also: SPOILERS!!!

So…I don’t know. Legit, I just don’t know. Not to say that I think this movie is bad, necessarily, I just don’t know what to say here. I’ve seen this film once before, but even after the credits rolled I didn’t feel like it left that big of an impact on me.

In all honesty, one of the biggest things I was focused on while watching was the wildly inaccurate depiction of DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) being displayed on screen which kept me from being fully immersed in the action. While James McAvoy does a brilliant job in this movie, the film’s tone heavily demonizes DID which is something I can’t approve.

People with mental illnesses are considerably more likely to be the victims of violence, not the perpetrators.

Looking past this major uncomfortable element, is there anything else to enjoy in this movie? Outside of McAvoy’s stunning performance, I can’t think of much else. Let’s get into it anyway.

Repress that childhood trauma and keep your wits about you in this review of Split.

Thankfully this movie doesn’t open with some indulgent text about the nature of mental illness. Instead we get this opening shot of our main protagonist named Casey Cooke (played by Anya Taylor-Joy) vacantly looking out the window of this restaurant at a classmate’s birthday party. Since nobody cares, I’ll just cut to the part where Casey, the birthday girl Claire (played by Haley Lu Richardson), and Claire’s friend Marcia (played by Jessica Sula) get kidnapped.

This is where we’ll spend the vast majority of the film.

Before I get too carried away with the details of the story, let’s look at the acting and focus. For what it’s worth, the acting from the three girls is pretty convincing and makes the situation feel realer. What’s unfortunate about it is that Claire and Marcia don’t get nearly as much focus as Casey. I can say that, for what I see, the acting of these two characters is well done, but they don’t get enough time to make a definitive impression.

Of course, filmmakers shouldn’t be discouraged from having a focus. After all, that’s how stories get messages across. It just would’ve been more interesting to see some variety from Shyamalan. Too often we see two, maybe three, characters steal the spotlight in his films while every other character recedes into the background. Speaking of which, the two characters we’re focusing on for this outing are Casey Cooke (as mentioned previous) and the kidnapper (played by James McAvoy).

Casey doesn’t talk much, but I suppose she’s relatable…enough. She seems to be the captive that’s most dedicated to escaping, has a way of endearing herself to her captor, and uses her intellect to come up with plans. Most of this is just portrayed through Anya Taylor-Joy’s performance as well. However, compared to James McAvoy, she’s practically invisible.

McAvoy truly delivers a career-defining performance in this movie and is the primary reason to watch it. As the kidnapper, his character is diagnosed with DID and has various alters that appear throughout the film. Just through subtle body language, vocal variations, and mannerisms, McAvoy manages to portray the appearance of a completely different identity and it’s astounding to watch. Here are only a few of the personalities that appear in the movie:

Each of them play some role in defining who the person underneath these alters is supposed to be which we’ll get to later. For now, though, let’s talk about Casey’s flashbacks.

At various points in the movie, it’ll randomly cut back to a moment of Casey when she was younger. They show how she was close with her father, went hunting with him and her uncle, and how creepy her uncle is. My question: are any of these scenes needed? I suppose they aide in having us feel sympathetic toward Casey, but in present day she’s already kidnapped. If it’s to show how she became so resourceful and how much she’s suffered, both of those could be implied or quickly explained.

In the scene where Claire and Marcia are brainstorming ways to take down their kidnapper, they could’ve asked each other if they had any skills that could help and Casey could’ve disclosed her hunting background then. Also, when it comes to the abuse Casey suffered at the hands of her uncle, we see her scars at the end of the movie anyway.

Also, the movie mentioned in the opening how Casey is a loner at school: intentionally getting detention to avoid going home, yelling at teachers, and straight up running away from home on multiple occasions. Given this information, and her attitude throughout the movie, we could infer that her home life isn’t great. We don’t need it spelled out for us.

The reason I’m going into so much detail about this is because Casey’s flashbacks add an additional 15-30 minutes to the movie that don’t need to be there. The runtime is 1 hour and 57 minutes, so if you cut out the Casey crap we don’t need, it’d probably go down to an hour 45 or an hour and a half. It would be great if blockbuster films had a bit more respect for our time. While I’ve said it in the past, I’d like to reiterate that I don’t have anything against long movies, they just need a reason to be long.

With that said, a huge element I’d like to go over is the portrayal of DID in the film.

We’re eventually introduced to the kidnapper’s therapist named Dr. Karen Fletcher (played by Betty Buckley) which muddies the waters more in terms of accurate representation. To their credit, the filmmakers introduce her to humanize the kidnapper by showing him empathy and understanding (until she finds out he’s a kidnapper). We also learn through her that the kidnapper’s name is Kevin. However, it gets uncomfortable when Dr. Fletcher starts making claims.

*One identity in an individual with Dissociative Identity Disorder can have high cholesterol. One. There have been cases where one identity is allergic to bee stings. The others are not.*

*Are there moments where two identities can coexist at the same time?*

*There are times when two identities can “take the light,” or “the spot,” or consciousness at the same time.*

Not to say that these scenarios aren’t possible in actual DID patients, it’s just that, from the research I’ve done on the subject so far, it seems that most of these concepts are theoretical. In regards to two identities inhabiting the body at the same time, that is actually possible and is called “co-consciousness” or “co-fronting” (DIDResearch). However, body chemistry altering due to the presence of a specific alter is technically possible, but yet to be definitively proven.

That’s more or less what happens throughout the movie. In the first half to two-thirds of the film, DID is played pretty accurately. People who are diagnosed experience time loss after an alter has inhabited the body, there’s no real limit on the number of alters a person can have (so long as there’s at least 1 [Kevin has 23]), and the disorder stems from severe childhood trauma (PsiChi). Eventually it ends up spiraling into nonsense, but that’s later.

At the very least the movie portrays Kevin as human which is commendable. It’s just that Kevin is the victim of the evil DID. No, movie. DID is not evil and it doesn’t hurt people.

People with mental illnesses are far more likely to be the victims of violence and not the perpetrators.

Over time, we’ll also hear more and more discussions about “The Beast.” What is The Beast? It’s supposedly Kevin’s 24th alter that’s developed to cleanse the world of the “impure” people who’ve never suffered in their lives. That’s the dumb I was waiting for. Thanks, Shyamalan. Speaking of which, where is he?

Despite these dumb moments, I just want to touch on the last thing I enjoy about this movie: Hedwig.

He’s Kevin’s alter that’s 9 years old and he’s pretty fun to watch. James McAvoy plays this role both hilariously and surprisingly emotional.

*Mith Patricia thinkth I’m…she thinkth I’m thtupid.*

He also has a catch-phrase.

It’s pretty good, but to be honest, as far as catchphrases go, it’s not that memorable. For example:

You know exactly what I mean *just* with this image.

The first thing you think of when you see this picture isn’t “Et thetera.”
It’s probably “Professor X on X-tasy.”

Anyway, now comes the very stupid parts of the film. Like I said: after repeated mentions of The Beast, multiple Casey escape attempts, unneeded flashbacks to Casey’s childhood, and meetings with Dr. Fletcher, the doctor eventually makes a house call. There she finds Dennis who gives another questionable take on DID. He mentions a case of a woman in Germany who was blind, but her alters could see. That sounds really outlandish to me, but I’m also not an expert. Dr. Fletcher also finds the girls.

Dennis subdues the doctor, because after getting some major “get out” vibes from Dennis, her first thought wasn’t to just leave. Eventually The Beast makes his debut and kills Dr. Fletcher with his super strength.

It’s safe to say that this movie has not only jumped over that shark, but did a flip in the air. From here on, it just keeps getting crazier and doesn’t let up. Casey escapes only to find Claire and Marcia partially eaten by The Beast, The Beast climbs up the walls like God-damned Spider-Man, he survives 2 direct shotgun blasts to the abdomen, and bends the bars of the cell Casey trapped herself in for protection immediately after.

It’s only after The Beast sees Casey’s scars from her uncle’s abuse that he makes the choice to let her go. In his eyes, she’s “pure” for having suffered. What about Claire and Marcia? You don’t have any proof that they didn’t suffer. Also, after having been kidnapped, wouldn’t that count as “suffering?” Anyway, the movie winds down when the next day a random dude comes across Casey in the cell. It turns out this was all taking place underneath a zoo.

Wait a minute! How the HELL did they not get discovered by any of the zoo staff this whole time? How often does security check these tunnels? This is the worst zoo in the world, because clearly Kevin and his alters managed to make a whole setup down here with a kitchen, bathroom, Hewig’s bedroom, and walk-in closet without ANYONE NOTICING. That is so stupid. What’s worse, The Beast persona was supposed to be a conglomeration of every animal in the zoo.

NO!

*Reports even indicate one of his personalities is an amalgam of the various animals in the Philadelphia Zoo where he worked.*
You know, an easy way to make this more believable is if you slapped the Fox News logo in the bottom corner.

Because of this incident, people start calling Kevin “The Horde” due to his disorder. Clearly this movie is making great strides in DID representation. Every Shyamalan movie has a twist though, and what’s the twist?

*This is like that crazy guy in the wheelchair that they put away 15 years ago. And they gave him a funny name, too. What was it?*

That’s right!
This was a sequel to *Unbreakable* the whole time.
Kinda underwhelming when you think about it.

So, in good Shayamalan films the ending usually makes the whole experience worth it. Here, though, it actually ruins it.

In the case of my Unbreakable review, I cut out a lot of details because they were often small. Not that they weren’t moving the plot forward, but they were just small, and they work better when you actually watch the movie. In Split’s case, many of the details I excluded just weren’t needed. Either they were slower just for the sake of it, or they weren’t progressing anything plot-wise or character-wise.

To be fair, there are some good elements I didn’t include that I actually liked. When Kevin makes his first appearance as himself after Casey calls his name, he notices he killed Dr. Fletcher, and asks Casey to kill him. It’s a pretty emotional moment, and is acted very well. Also, it’s hinted at that Dr. Fletcher’s constant praise may have helped create The Beast’s ideology. These are interesting concepts on their own, but in conjunction with that ending, it really drives me up a wall. Much like The Beast.

Despite a reasonably grounded portrayal of DID in the first half to two-thirds, the movie completely tosses that out in the end for the sake of “movie.” To some degree, I get it. This is a thriller, you gotta have a suspenseful climax, but they could’ve handled it way better. Where it gets difficult to defend is also in the case of Dr. Fletcher’s character.

As a “professional,” even though it’s a movie, many viewers could watch it and believe her claims which can be damaging to real people with DID. With Unbreakable, it deals with fantastical elements, but they’re tied to psychological tropes, too. These characters may have special abilities, but that could just be in their own heads which is what causes them to go back-and-forth on it so much making the progression feel more real. In Split, the “fantastical” element is the antagonist having DID.

Mental illness is not magic/comic stuff, it’s a real thing.

It’s also something that, unfortunately, isn’t as understood as it should be. Because of this, if you’re going to touch on this subject, you really have to know what you’re doing. If you wanted to make a thriller centering around a character with DID, you could’ve made it about how the world views them because of their disorder and the trouble they find themselves in because of it. That would’ve been both suspenseful and real. It also would’ve been an easy way to get us to sympathize with that character.

Instead, this movie takes the easy way out. The person with the mental disorder does all the bad stuff, because: mental disorder. For this reason, I can’t get behind this movie. If you’re just looking for a stellar James McAvoy performance this weekend, then this is exactly what you’ve been waiting for, but I probably won’t be watching it again for a while.

I’m going to rate this movie a 2.5/5 “Et theteras.” Believe me, it was really hard for me to come up with a rating for this movie, mostly because I mentioned how there are things I like about it. The absolute highest I’d feel comfortable rating it would be a 3/5, but because of the dumb moments (not just dumb, but damaging) I thought this would be a good compromise.

*Did you think it wath a real window…tho you could leave, et thetera?*

(I make no claim of ownership for any of the images used in this post)

(Each of them are owned entirely by their respective copyright holders, which are not me)

(I’m just a humble blogger who talks about movies, I do not make them)

(Yet)

NO!

Glass

Unbreakable