The human brain has never ceased to fascinate humanity, especially artists. Everything we know and comprehend ultimately rests with this organ, allowing mankind to mould its surrounding in its favour. But is the fear of what lies beyond the human understanding – the supernatural – an offspring of the brain’s imagination or a reminder of its limitations? Do we control the brain or does the brain control us?
Throwing open these questions, M. Night Shyamalan’s Split dives right into its plot with merely a scene to set up the film. Shyamalan means business. There’s an abduction right at the beginning and the thrills begin even before you’re half way through your bucket of popcorn. But the thrills aren’t cheap or gimmicky. They are confined in a series of close-ups and monologues. They make you imagine, trap you in your thoughts and take you on a flight of analysis.
The movie tells the story of a lunatic, Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) who kidnaps three teenage girls Claire (Haley Lu Richardson), Marcia (Jessica Sula) and Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy). It is a go-to setup for low budget thrillers, except this kidnapper isn’t just a whack job with an abusive childhood. He is grappling with dissociative identity disorder that renders him with 23 split personalities.
Unaware of the malicious manifestations of his disorder, Kevin's psychiatrist, Dr. Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley) delivers convincing and complex explanations, making us fear him further. But sadly, what starts off as a promising premise that keeps you guessing and examining Kevin closely soon becomes a straightforward and hackneyed narrative. It’s almost as if Shyamalan himself got spooked out by the complexity of the human brain and decided to simplify it a little by adding the presence of a 24th ‘supernatural’ personality.
Despite the lost opportunity, the film remains deeply claustrophobic. When not trapped in freakily long close-up shots, the struggle of the three teens to get out of an underground tunnel, where they are kept kidnapped, will make you feel breathless. While you want the girls to escape, each failed attempt is like a free fall: you know it won’t end well.
Beyond all the usual tactics of a thriller – some that work and several that don’t – the film eventually belongs to McAvoy. Despite the Scottish actor being given a role that is enviably meaty on paper itself, he takes it up 23 notches higher. Each personality is nuanced, relies little on costumes and is bereft of exaggeration. The teenage girls, on the flipside, make up for the lack of stoicism and over-dramatisation, barring Taylor-Joy who plays the gritty and intuitive Casey.
The movie is touted widely as Shyamalan’s big comeback but there are only those many ways in which a filmmaker, who has spent his entire career making thrillers, can reinvent the genre. Fortunately, Split retains the delicate spookiness of The Sixth Sense (1999), but unfortunately is ridden with the predictability that infested his other movies.
