There is a type of film that must be called “wasted opportunities”, this genre with a distinctive story filled with a large area of creativity, which is accompanied by an extraordinary representation and performance of some of his characters, and then wasted all of them to provide a very modest meal for the viewer ?! Split is someone.
The film was released on January 20, 2017 under the category of horror and psychological thriller, starring James McAvoy and Anya Taylor Joe and Betty Buckley, the film directed by M. Knight Shimlan, known for psychological horror films such as The Six Sense, The Happening and The Visit, is also the author of the film.
When you first watch the movie, you will get one thing: a glimpse of McCavoy's creativity in this unusual character, and you will probably expect a lot from this story and this wonderful embodiment. Well it wasn't that bad but didn't meet those expectations!
The story
The film is about a man suffering from DID or as schizophrenia, with at least 23 different characters in his mind, including a woman and a nine-year-old, who also played James McAvoy.
This person kidnaps three girls and holds them somewhere for a purpose, and we follow the events of the story from here between their attempts to escape and learn more about this person with multiple personalities, suspicious in fact and the reason for kidnapping the girls.
On a parallel line see his psychiatrist d. Fletcher, who has played Betty Buckley, tries to understand her patient's recent strange behavior and believes that schizophrenics have supernatural abilities.
Performance saved what can be saved
Performance is perhaps the most important feature of the film, and the remarkable performance of some characters - and very good of others - has reduced a disaster that could have happened.
McCafoy's role as a schizophrenic patient is great, a great performance that makes you completely uncomfortable as you watch him, moving between characters in the same scene and his unbalanced expressions during this transformation and persuading each character as if he wiped out before in less than a second. Movie to see all this madness.
Anya Taylor's performance was also excellent, and she succeeded in reversing all the complexities of her personality and emotions well, Buckley's performance was very good and trying to lure her patient and understand what is hidden, the rest of the characters did not distinguish it, but it was good.
Modest output and filming
Directing or filming was not so special, and it may not have given me the tension needed as a psychological horror film.
No distinct angles or extraordinary footage, except for the proximity of the camera to the faces of the characters in many scenes;
Weak plot and frail dialogue
We get to the two worst things in the film at all, the plot… it was weak to have expected what would happen after some points were revealed and did not have the desired effect and may have gone out of the logical framework a bit because without convincing introductions, introductions were put but inadequate and not adequately reviewed.
The dialogue was weak and somewhat floppy. Some sentences would read it quickly without understanding its meaning.
So why is “a missed opportunity”?
From the beginning of the film to the middle of it was very good and promising has attracted your attention, and then the situation begins to decline and may get bored until we reach the end, which is the weakest link in the film.
Perhaps the characters are not presented in an appropriate manner either. I understand that this is a horror film, but it is a psychological horror.
Perhaps the focus on Anya in the role of "Casey" but the method of presentation was in the form of flashback somewhat poor and intermittent throughout the film, and did not apply to the other two girls.
I understand not to explain the character of our hero or his background as a kind of mystery and excitement, but even to the end we also did not understand how he reached this stage, and to achieve the truth was placed a very short flashback from his past in the end to justify a situation, which was unfortunately unfortunate.
Finally my opinion
Finally, the end was not really distinctive, as introductions were put throughout the film to convince you of the end, but forgot other more important introductions they did not address them only in a short scene and never enough.
Overall the film is good, you will react to McAfoy's performance to a great extent and may be stuck in your memory for a while, and you will enjoy the film in general but will not reach the degree of horror expected, we can consider it a thriller only psychological.
