James McAvoy’s Multiple Identities Own the Screen in M. Night Shyamalan Thriller ‘Split’

Aryeh Harris-Shapiro

Night Shyamalan’s new thriller “Split” begins in a startlingly straightforward manner. High school outsider Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy) and two other girls are kidnapped by Kevin (James McAvoy), a man with 23 different personalities. He looks the girls in a windowless room, and it transpires that a handful of Kevin’s personalities have taken over, bringing with them a set of fanatic beliefs and a frightening plan for the captives. The biggest surprise of “Split” is just how faithfully Shyamalan, the master of twists, sticks to his original premise, delivering a wickedly fun but shallow thriller that feels like another step forward for a writer-director who was very recently in Hollywood’s bad graces.

It’s funny to think back on a time when Shyamalan’s career seemed to be over, when his credit in the “After Earth” trailer famously drew laughter from audiences instead of applause. That movie, called “the most painful failure in my career” by Will Smith, represented a nadir for Shyamalan, a flop lacking even the creative spark of his earlier disaster “Lady in the Water.” That failure drove Shyamalan back to low-budget filmmaking with “The Visit,” a nasty, funny little thriller that earned $100 million on a $5 million budget. “Split” is another low-budget effort, one that could easily replicate its predecessors surprising success with a high-concept premise and a strong cast that infuses life into Shyamalan’s off-kilter, high-concept premise.

Most of the film’s success has to be attributed to McAvoy’s performance. Shyamalan, who gravitated to muted, quiet performances for most of his career, has built a film entirely around a dynamo of a character who devours the scenery. McAvoy is phenomenal here, moving seamlessly between a huge number of characters. He’s both hilarious and terrifying, and the film is best when Shyamalan allows him to dominate the proceedings. Unfortunately, the film has two other protagonists, neither nearly as interesting. While the actors who play them do great work, there’s only so much they can do with severely underwritten parts.

Anya Taylor-Joy, fresh off a star-making turn in “The Witch,” plays Casey as someone familiar with threats and fear, hinting at the dark personal history behind her outsider status. The character is unfortunately just reduced to an audience surrogate watching helplessly as Kevin’s story unfolds. The same holds true for Dr. Karen Fletcher, Kevin’s psychologist, played by “Carrie” actress Betty Buckley. Buckley does fantastic work with her buckets of exposition, but at the end of the day, she’s just a well-meaning victim. “Split” truly is Kevin’s story, and a lively crowd-pleaser at its core.

“Split” opens nationwide Jan. 20