Starring: James McAvoy, Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Sarah Paulson, Anya Taylor-Joy, Spencer Treat Clark, Charlayne Woodard, Luke Kirby
Distributor: Walt Disney Studios
Runtime: 129 mins. Reviewed in Jan 2019
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It is almost 2 decades ago that Indian-born, Philadelphia citizen, M. Night Shyamalan, broke through with an enormous hit, critical and box office success, The Sixth Sense (1999) with his quotable line, “I see dead people”. He followed it with a thriller, Unbreakable, with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson. Although he directed (14), wrote (16) and produced (13), quite a number of films over the 20 years, he never had quite the same critical appreciation until 2016 with Split.
Split was a winner, a portrait of a man with 24 different personalities. James McAvoy gave a tour-to force performance bringing these characters alive, the haughty Patricia, young Dennis, the timid Kevin, and in a rage bursting out as the Beast, a tribute to the Hulk. So, what better than to have a sequel to Split?
And the answer is, introduce James McAvoy again and the many personalities, but, as the end of Split suggested, go back to Unbreakable, reintroduce Samuel L. Jackson as the literally brittle character, Elijah Price, Mr Glass, with his fragile bones, tended by his mother, sitting in his chair, masterminding the plots of comic thrillers. And, reintroduce David, Bruce Willis’s character, the security guard who alone survived a devastating train crash, who seemed to be imbued with powers of knowledge, superhuman.
And, not only reintroduce them and link them but also invent an ingenious plot device which brings the three of them together through the train crash, and an explanation of why the young Kevin became the 24 characters. But, one has to wait until the end for this explanation – well worth waiting for.
For security reasons, three central characters find themselves interned in a mental institution. Their progress is supervised by visiting psychologist, Sarah Paulson, who has three days to make a report on them, her main aim seeming to be to “normalise them”. As if this could possibly happen!
Each of the characters has a special person in the outside world and the psychologist summons them to help her, Anya Taylor-Joy as Casey, one of the schoolgirls previously held hostage by Patricia, the Beast and co, Elijah’s mother (Charlayne Woodard reprising her earlier role) and David’s son, Joseph (played in 2000 by the young Spencer Treat Clark and the adult actor now reprising his role).
Audience suspicions might be somewhat aroused by the assured manner of the psychologist and the question of to whom she is responsible.
In the meantime, everything builds up to quite a climax, the three involved in an elaborate escape from the institution, masterminded again by Elijah, his playing on the multiple fears of the personalities, his hostility towards David, established long since.
So, the screenplay is psychologically interesting. It also has touches of horror. It also builds up to a violently confrontative ending. But, there is a postscript, with the three contacts sitting in Philadelphia railway station and all the passers-by suddenly looking at their smart phones. We know what they are looking at, but will there be consequences?
And we have plenty of time to contemplate these questions during the striking final credits, a series of cascading glass shards showing us the characters, their interactions, reinforcing our puzzles.
Peter Malone MSC is an Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting.
This American film, billed as a superhero thriller, is a sequel to M. Night Shymalan’s two previous films, “Unbreakable” (2000) and “Split” (2016). Members of the cast reprise the roles they took in previous films.
Bruce Willis returns as David Dunn, and Samuel L. Jackson returns as Elijah Price, alias Mr Glass. Price is the person in control of the multiple personalities absorbed within the psyche of Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), alias The Beast. The film uses thriller and horror elements to tell its story, and Anya Taylor-Joy returns as Casey Cooke, the only person captured by The Beast who has managed to survive. David Dunn is a Security guard, who has supernatural abilities and he uses them to track Kevin Crumb, who is psychotically disturbed and has 24 different personalities. The most disturbed of the personalities is The Beast, who is the last personality of the 24.
Dr Stapel (Sarah Paulson, a new member of the cast) is a research psychiatrist, who deals specifically with patients who believe they have super-human powers. She thinks their behaviour can be explained rationally. It is their beliefs that are the real problem to her, and breaking down the belief structures will solve the problem. Dunn, Price and Crumb are inmates in an institution under her probing scrutiny, and each of them believes – and shows – super-human capacity.
Clinically, the movie is grounded to the dissociative identity disorder of multiple personality, but its treatment of multiple personality is unrealistic. It uses shock, surprise, and plot twists to hold its suspense. The psychological validity of the syndrome is not the film’s concern, as was the case in “The Three Faces of Eve” (1957) which reflected the viewpoint of the doctors who treated Eve. James McAvoy, however, trying to cope with 24 different personalities – all trying to break out – gives a bravura performance as he vacillates from one personality to another with striking exhibitionistic display.
The film itself illustrates comic-book, superhero prowess with impressive special effects and shadowy cinematography. They show Dunn’s excessive strength and his super-sensory ability, and Crumb’s super-motor flexibility as The Beast, especially well. As predictable, the film provides bloody images of violence and grim happenings.
The final movie in a trilogy by the same Director gives this movie its main significance. The film demonstrates the end pursuit of Crumb by Dunn, the horror that occurs when The Beast is on the loose, and the mystery of Elijah Price, who is controlling what happens from a wheelchair. The film pursues modern comic book relevance and significance by examining what being a Super-hero, or Super-villain is supposed to mean, which provides interesting commentary on Super-heroes and Super- villains appearing on a wide variety of cinema screens, world-wide.
There are moments of solid tension as Shyamalan amply demonstrated in “The Sixth Sense” (1999), which was one of the best thriller-supernatural movies of the late 1990s. That film brilliantly combined evidence of mental disturbance with the supernatural. This film has a different thrust. As the movie which completes the trilogy of an imaginative Director, ultimate appeal in this movie is to horror cinema with elements of mystery, thriller, and the Director’s philosophical reflections thrown in to cement the mix.
This film closes a story that began with the “Untouchables”. It provide a turbulent climax to the series, and poses a host of philosophical questions about so-called fantasy figures, of the superhero variety, who may or may not have skills that are realistically honed, and should be appreciated for whatever special abilities they have. A final paranoid plot-teaser is worth the wait.
Peter W. Sheehan is Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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