Bottom Line: Huge Wasted Potential

Rating: 5/10 (28 January 2017)

Watching Split can be a frustrating experience if you wish too hard for the movie to go like it starts. With the abduction of three teenage girls by a genuinely creepy assailant Split gets off to a sinister start. Right away it becomes a James McAvoy acting class as we learn this isn't anything as one would expect. McAvoy has about two dozen personalities which his therapist believes she's getting both an education and a handle on. This is where some restraint might have kept a different thriller chugging along steadily building a more credible story. Of course this is M. Night Shamalayan so the paranormal has to be injected right along side the attempt at realism. It was brilliant in his Sixth Sense only seeming to weigh down what had so much potential here. It is not, however, a train wreck as it remains watchable slowly revealing the pathos of both the McAvoy character and Casey who is the odd-duck of the three girls. The hard-to-swallow part is how the McAvoy character continues to function being so out of control while manipulating his, we're led to believe, esteemed therapist, plus he's living below the NYC zoo in a secret madman's liar. A wall climbing scene totally jerks what little believably is left by the ending. Yes, with Shamalayan I know I should expect this, even though it comes off rather silly. Frustration is how good it started versus how it failed to use that start's potential fully. Plenty of folks are going to be "split" on this film.