Movie Review: M. Night Shyamalan's Split

Split
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Writers:M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson,
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Official Socials: Site | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | IMDb
Hashtag: #SplitMovie

After three girls are kidnapped by a man with 24 distinct personalities they must find some of the different personalities that can help them while running away and staying alive from the others.



Let me start off by saying that this movie will bring back M. Night Shyamalan into popularity because it is THAT good! The cinematography, the way some of the scenes were filmed to show but not show too much so to keep you curious, the lighting of it, everything was incredibly superb. Before the screening of the movie began, there was a clip of M. Night Shyamalan stating how excited he was for this movie and that there is a surprise at the end of it and to please not say anything about it to anyone to keep the surprise -and what a surprise it is! I can summarize my review by saying that I was very, very pleased with this movie, despite the little things that bothered me about it.

James McAvoy proves in this movie that his talent as an actor surpasses that of many more famous and recognized. The way he transforms into the different personalities and can have completely different demeanor, tone of voice, way of speaking, walking, and acting with each personality is just mind blowing. One of his personalities even has a lisp; how does he do that?! He honestly deserves the highest of praises for his acting in this movie. You can tell he gave it his all, and then some. Aside from James, the girls that play the victims he kidnaps are also excellent actresses, especially Anya Taylor-Joy! I see a bright future for these girls and I hope they go on to doing much more amazing movies.

Being an M. Night Shyamalan movie, there is a twist in the end with let's call it a bit of fantasy, but it works with the plot, actually. When this part comes up, James' acting will finish blowing your mind. I was so impressed by how he looks in this part that I was mesmerized. He looks completely crazy!

Going now on to what I didn't like about the movie: being a Mental Health Counselor myself, I saw a few problems with this movie. Bare with me for I know they are small technicalities, but being someone that respects her profession as much as I do, it did bother me and I like to educate the public. First of all, we don't call the people we treat patients anymore -we call them clients. We aren't medical doctors, so we can't call them patients. We haven't done that in like 20 years or so, Hollywood, so get with the program. Secondly, the therapist is way too personally invested with her clients, and that's never a good thing -and a bad representation of most of us. She says that she chose to remain single because she chooses to have her "patients" be her family. I wanted to slap her! You never, ever do that because you must maintain boundaries! Other than that, as a mental health professional, I will say they got the rest pretty right (especially how they portrayed the disorder -which is NOT called Multiple Personality Disorder anymore; it's Dissociative Identity Disorder or D.I.D.) and I appreciate that very much.

If you're into thrillers and like M. Night Shyamalan's original work, this will definitely make you very happy. If you like twists at the end, you'll like this movie. If you want a wonderful surprise, trust me, you will like this move.

I really, really recommend it. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did!