Lots of personality
James McAvoy shines in dissociative-identity thriller
IT isn’t up to par with his previous chiller, “The Visit,” but M. Night Shyamalan’s latest features a dazzling performance by James McAvoy as a villain with raging multiple- personality disorder.
The “Last King of Scotland” and “X-Men: Apocalypse” actor segues among Hedwig, a mischievous 9-year-old; matronly British sadist Patricia; Barry, a flamboyant clothing designer; and a brute named Dennis, who abducts and imprisons three teen girls (Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson and Jessica Sula).
Other personas pop up, too. There are 23 in all, and McAvoy expertly signals, even just with slight facial changes, that he’s gone over to a different one. It’s a trip to watch.
Unfortunately, you could probably improve “Split” by editing out everything around McAvoy and making it an experimental one-man show. At least then it would escape this parade of clichés, from the scantily clad, terrified young girls to the gentle psychiatrist (Betty Buckley) fretting that her patient is going off the rails.
Taylor-Joy, as the central teen, does her best with a role in which she’s mostly required to tremble, tear up and flash back to her abusive childhood at the hands of her uncle (Brad William Henke). Eventually she’ll get a shot at retaliation, but even that’s diluted, a reminder that powerhouse roles for teen girls, such as the one she had in “The Witch,” are few and far between. Looming over it all is a warning, from Barry and the others, that there’s a 24th personality waiting in the wings. “The beast is coming for you,” Hedwig warns with a giggle. Adds Patricia, gently: “You are sacred food.” Therein lies the main source of tension, and I’m sorry to report — spoiler alert, sort of — that Shyamalan seems to have totally lost his touch with a twist. If the director has done one thing effectively over the course of his career, it’s trained us to expect that eleventh-hour reveal — sometimes excellent (“The Sixth Sense,” “The Visit”), other times eye-roll inducing (“The Village,” “The Happening”). Here, however, there’s only a whisper of a twist — and it’s one you can hardly fail to see coming.