James McAvoy Betty Buckley Anya Taylor-Joy Jessica Sula Haley Lu Richardson
About as creepy as it can get in portraying a
mentally ill person’s delusions.
James McAvoy is at the height of his performances in the depiction of
someone with multiple personalities.
Here, he can be tough, mean, simple minded, and artsy, depending on
which identity is “up.” He does
this mostly with facial expressions and body language, which makes his
performance more impressive. The
psychiatrist treating him is pretty well portrayed and very well acted by
Buckley as Dr. Fletcher. How
factual the representation of dissociative identity disorder is, I can’t really
judge because I don’t have experience with that diagnosis, but it “rang true”
from what I know.
My issue with this and other horror movies is
that they linger a bit too long on moments of tension and tend to drag them out
long after they’re plausible. Most
notable is the ending—which is not really an ending—in which a character has a
chance to do just that (end things) and doesn’t. Another issue is that every
scene with the women shows them to be fragile, easily rattled, and unable to
take action. The two girls
abducted with Casey (Taylor-Joy), Marcia (Sula) and Claire (Richardson), really
got on my nerves with the panicky breathing and hysterical behavior. And although Dr. Fletcher is portrayed
as a very competent therapist in most of the story, her portrayal toward the
end is inconsistent with how she is portrayed professionally in the beginning.
The story begins with a father urging his
daughter and her friend to be compassionate toward an odd, retiring classmate,
Casey, and offer her a ride home.
But just as they are getting in the car, the father acknowledges someone
approaching, and suddenly we see the stranger driving the car rather than the
father. This stranger is abducting
the three girls. He is “Kevin”
(McAvoy) who will rain terror on them in the coming days.
Shyamalan has had an uneven career, with some
of his work praised (Sixth Sense and
perhaps Signs) and much of it
criticized (Lady in the Water). He is good at weaving a story that
keeps the viewer mesmerized and interested in the esoteric, but at times he
gets too caught up in the supernatural.
Here, he is good at introducing the main character with 23 personalities
slowly, so the viewer’s reaction may be, “Is that the same person we just
saw?” And then the disorder we’re
seeing becomes clear.
Another plus is Shyamalan fleshing out Casey’s
character so that her current behavior and deportment are well accounted for by
events in her childhood.
A mostly well crafted thriller that
will make your skin crawl while you admire the star.
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