Hi guys it's Debbie and today I would like to
speak about "Split", a horror film directed
by M. Night Shyamalan and starring James
McAvoy. McAvoy portrays Kevin Wendell
Crumb, a man with a severe form of
dissociative identity disorder (what was
previously known as multiple personality
disorder). Although there have been cases
of people with a high number of identities,
the average is between three and
sixteen. But Kevin has more than twenty
personalities, which range from a
peaceful and joyful designer and artist,
to a strict woman, to a nine-year-old
child and so on. Each personality is
completely separated from the others
(although aware of them) and Kevin
acts accordingly to which personality is
currently "sitting in the light".
Kevin is followed by a psychiatrist,
Dr. Fletcher, which states that his condition
makes him special and closely follows
his case and tries to prove to the world
that he isn't dangerous and if studied, his
body could revealed important scientific information.
The film opens with Kevin kidnapping
three teenage girls after a birthday party
and keeping them captive in a mysterious
room. The girls find it particularly difficult to
reason with Kevin or try to escape
because his personality changes really
quickly and he can skip from a happy
and helpful personality to a violent and
strict one in a matter of seconds. I found
James McAvoy's performance absolutely
stunning because he perfectly conveyed the
conflict between different personalities
inside his mind. And as each personality has
its own behaviour, for example one of them
is really playful and outspoken, another one
has OCD, another one is very strict,
he also completely changes his appearance, his
behaviour and he did it it considering
changes in the voice, in the way he is sitting
or he is standing, his attitude, what he touches
and what he doesn't, his facial expressions
so every small detail. For example in one
scene we see one of the most dangerous
personalities trying to emerge and we notice
his mouth starting to twitch and his face beginning to
move even before we know it is
about to appear, he starts fidgeting with different objects
and then suddenly his voice changes, his eyes
immediately become more stern, he sits
up straight. And when he is Hedwig, the
nine-year-old child, he dances in his
bedroom just as a child would.
It isn't an adult trying to act
like a child, in his mind he is a child.
He dances and he plays, he is both
jealous and proud of the objects in his
bedroom. So the personality isn't only
limited to the mind but it affects the physical
body and the way it behaves, so there is a
complete transformation from one personality to
another, it's not just like a mood swing.
And James McAvoy definitely did a great
job at conveying all of this. It's a pity he wasn't
nominated for this year's Best Actor
category at the Academy Awards, I hope
he'l make it in the next Awards in 2018.
James McAvoy had actually proved to be
extremely able to portray psychological
issues back in 2013 with the film
"Filth". He portrayed a troubled detective
which found it hard to stay focused on
his life and career, he was starting to lose
his grip on reality and his mind was starting
to slip into absurd visions, also
because of his heavy abuse of alcohol and
drugs. Obviously it was a completely
different character from Kevin in "Split"
but it proves that McAvoy is extremely
able in portraying personality,
portraying what doesn't immediately meet the
eye, what's happening in the mind. I also
appreciated Anya Taylor-Joy's
performance as a quiet teenager with a
troubled past, which unfortunately has had
to grow up too fast, appearing more
mature then the other kidnapped girls but
for a dark reason. There has been a lot of
controversy regarding "Split" as many
people have argued that it is one of the
many films that portray mental illness
as a frightening topic. I partially agree
because in some scenes Kevin is portrayed
as a very frightening person, his
mental illness is treated as a horror topic. But I
say partially because there are also some
minor features which should be
appreciated such as his doctor's behaviour.
Because she teaches Kevin to accept
the various personalities, she
teaches him there's nothing to be afraid
or ashamed of, and she also promises him
that she will soon be able to present his
case to the scientific community,
proving he's not a monster. Kevin is only
treated as a "monster" when his most
repressed and dangerous personalities
emerge. When he's not putting himself
and others in danger, he's shown just
as he is, a loving and understanding person.
The film doesn't immediately show that
people with mental illness are a threat. As a
matter of fact there are other
characters in the film which are not
described with a disorder but they cause
much more damage than Kevin did. So
there is still some ambiguity concerning
this topic. There is also another
question which the film raises: is
Kevin guilty? Because from what we see it's
not actually Kevin Wendell Crumb
kidnapping the girls and it's not even
most of his personalities. His terrible
actions are only carried out by some
specific repressed personalities
which are extremely prone to violence
and which he always tries to keep out
of the "light", he never tries to make them
emerge. So would Kevin be
considered guilty in court of his crimes?
Who would be considered guilty?
I personally really enjoyed the film, I loved
James McAvoy's performance, I also
appreciated Anya Taylor-Joy as a
supporting actress. But one thing that
disappointed me was the ending of the
film. This ending part of the video will contain
spoilers, so if you haven't seen the film
yet I would recommend avoiding the end of
the video. Instead if you would like to see other
film and series reviews and
reactions, make sure to subscribe. For
everybody that saw the film, at the end
of "Split" we saw a new personality
emerging, the 24th personality which is
"The Beast". "The Beast" is a personality which I assume
emerged after Kevin recalled some of
his childhood memories of when he was
abused by his mother and when he was
abandoned on a train by his father. "The Beast" is an
extremely strong personality, a new leader
for the weaker ones, it has
convinced the others that it will prove
to the world that they are not monsters
and it will show how strong they are. When we
see "The Beast", he has an exceptional
physical strength and this could be
scientifically accurate as Kevin is
quite muscular and the mind can influence our
body, its chemical reactions and
push it to the limit in order to perform
certain actions that wouldn't normally be
carried out. For example running
extremely fast or not focusing on pain.
So although slightly weird it still
made sense. What didn't make sense were
certain scenes, for example the one in which
Dr. Fletcher stabs "The Beast".
Her knife completely splits clean, it doesn't
even have some jagged ends. Also I understand that under
physical pressure a lot of veins
in our body tend to bulge but we
see "The Beast"'s back completely covered in
these massive blue veins. I
would have preferred the film to
continue on its more or less
scientifically accurate track and I
think that some of these scenes ruin an otherwise
perfectly built character. So that is the
only part slightly that slightly disappointed me.
I hope you enjoyed this video, let me know
what you thought about "Split" and about
James McAvoy's performance. And I said before,
make sure to subscribe for more
movie-related videos. See you soon in a new video, bye!
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