Scott Hardie: “It was ok.”
On the special edition DVD of The Sixth Sense, there's a featurette where M. Night Shyamalan talks about the best lesson he ever got in film school: Be prepared to delete your favorite scene. The original ending of that movie, after Bruce Willis's character has his revelation and makes peace with it, is a five-minute video clip of a wedding playing on the TV, where Willis's character drunkenly talks about how much he adores his wife. It's a lovely little scene, and easy to see why Shyamalan considered it the heart of the movie in his script, but once he got to the editing room, he realized that the movie ended one scene earlier and had to force himself to cut it, sacrificing one good scene to make the rest stronger.
He forgets that lesson with Split, which is mostly a clever cat-and-mouse game between two victims of trauma, one an abductor and the other his abductee. Their final confrontation over, the abductee makes the stomach-churning realization that she's still stuck in a different awful cage, as the camera dwells on a hunted-lion statue that nicely underlines the subtext, and Shyamalan should have faded to credits right there. Instead, he adds an unnecessary curtain call for one character, and then a twist out of left field that reveals the film to be something other (and much lesser) than what it seemed to be. Shyamalan has the ambition and the skill to be a serious artist making great entertainment, but he also has the poor taste of a schlockmeister, and here he cannot resist inserting a winking punchline where none is appropriate. (And seriously, dude, how many years has it been since the events you reference? Let it go. Nobody cares.)
Also damaging to the film is the trailer, which gives away most of the plot. If you've seen it, you've already seen 80% of the movie. There's still plenty of sustained tension and creepy atmosphere and very clever photography, which go a long way. And the best is James McAvoy's acting, for which this movie is a showcase; it's almost a surprise when the credits list him playing only eight people because it feels like we see him play a lot more, all of them very well. Lead actress Anya Taylor-Joy is also quite good in a much less showy role; she deserves better material than the horror movies she keeps starring in. I would have really enjoyed seeing this movie play out unspoiled, both by the trailer and by the ending, as I would have liked it a lot more.This review contains spoilers. Reveal it.
− February 1, 2017 • more by Scott • log in or create an account to reply
Scott Hardie: Netflix's plot description is way, way off. I have no idea where they got that. − February 1, 2017 • more by Scott
Evie Totty: LMAO "In this supernatural thriller, a man already shattered by a personal loss finds his world increasingly haunted by four young women, all of whom are after the same thing: his mortal identity."
I haven't seen the film (nor your spoiler review) and I know that's wrong. :joy: − February 1, 2017 • more by Evie
Evie Totty: What do you think now that a sequel has been announced?
Though yes I do agree that the horror would have stuck had they ended it where you said. My heart broke for that girl. − May 10, 2017 • more by Evie
Scott Hardie: I have no interest in a sequel. The movie ends when Anya Taylor-Joy's character finds herself in (relative) safety. Anything after that point is superfluous, including a follow-up film.
It's been a few months and I still feel annoyed by that ending. The movie would be a fairly strong thriller if not for its final scene, which reveals it to have been a prologue to a ho-hum superhero film all along. You can sense Shyamalan's delight at tricking the audience; it's almost palpable. But fuck you, M. Night Shyamalan. I cared about your characters, and now I don't. You make a mockery of my caring.
I spent years defending Shyamalan from people who said he always does twist endings. First of all, no he doesn't, and second of all, people are treating ordinary plot developments as "twists" simply because it's Shyamalan. The aliens turning out to have a mundane weakness in Signs is not a twist; it's a normal plot development in that sort of movie, with origins in genre films of the 1950s. A supporting character turning out to be a villain at the end of Unbreakable is not a twist; that movie is a superhero origin story, and that development was fitting for the material, similar to reveals in Christopher Nolan's Batman films. But do you know what? I'm done defending Shyamalan. I liked Split until that epilogue; he just couldn't help but ruin it with a surprise at the end. People can say whatever they want about him; he's not worth defending.This reply contains spoilers. Reveal it. − May 10, 2017 • more by Scott
Evie Totty: You know - I finished the movie and was like 'where was the twist?' (Given what I said below - I had to actually think about it, and I suppose it stood out a little more since I had already heard of the 'sequel' before I watched it. Admittedly - that announcement is the only reason I watched it since I love Unbreakable so much) − May 12, 2017 • more by Evie
Scott Hardie: Talking to someone about this movie today, I realized two things: 1) I'm really glad that I gave up on M. Night Shyamalan after this, because it's been a relief not to keep hoping that each subsequent film that he makes might be "the one that's good again," and 2) my choice to write around spoilers in order to conceal them is really unnecessary when there are links to hide them like one that you just clicked. I wish that I had just come out and said what I meant.
So, here's what I meant above about Split's ending: After much strife, the teenage heroine (Anna Taylor-Joy) has escaped from the madman (James McAvoy) who abducted her to kill her. When she realizes that the police are going to release her back into the custody of the uncle who has long molested her and there's no way out of it (long story), that's a tragic and affecting end for the film, and the movie should have rolled credits there, with a beautiful shot of snow falling on the statue that she's looking at. Instead, it gives us one additional scene of McAvoy muttering to himself, which isn't bad but is definitely unnecessary. Then, it gives us one final epilogue scene of Bruce Willis's character from Unbreakable watching these events covered on the local TV news and determining to stop McAvoy himself, revealing that the entire film was in fact a sequel to Unbreakable. What seemed like a moody, intense, pretty good thriller was in fact just a comic book superhero movie sequel, and at that, a sequel to a film released seventeen years earlier and is now mostly forgotten. ("How many years has it been? Let it go, nobody cares.")
Directors who spend years being cultural punching bags sometimes develop a chip on their shoulder that affects their work, like they write critics into their films as characters in order to humiliate them, or some of their subsequent films trip over themselves trying way too hard to be respectable. Shyamalan already made the execrable Lady in the Water as his primary response to his reputation and critics, but his choices since then continue to seem like a man acting out of wounded pride. Every time he makes a good movie like Split -- and much of it is good, because Shyamalan is very talented as a visual storyteller and a technical craftsman -- it's like he has to debase it with a dumb twist ending in order to bring the rest of the world down to the level that he feels unfairly stuck at. The man needs a therapist to work through his enissophobia.This reply contains spoilers. Reveal it. − March 3, 2023 • more by Scott
Evie Totty: Ok since this review, I've seen the finale. I hated it. I won't go into why because you can obviously read my review to see (though I should check to see if I put why lol).
I also have not seen anything he's done since. I will admit I watched the first fifteen minutes or so of Servant on Apple TV+ because it was moving into its third season and was reportedly good.
Yeah no. The premise is ridiculous. And the way he has his actors look as if they have full facial botox is wearing thin. I even watched Unbreakable again recently and ... I did not enjoy it as much as I once did because of this pervasive theme.
You are absolutely correct. The movie should have ended where you described so he could have had some sort of redemption, but instead, he erased it with that abomination Glass. I don't think I have EVER been that angry over a movie before or since.
Marking as spoiler b/c it's a reply to the spoiler reply above despite being spoiler-free, if that makes any sense.
Shammy is dead to me.This reply contains spoilers. Reveal it. − March 9, 2023 • more by Evie
Scott Hardie: Heh. "Shammy." That man must have so many nicknames. − March 10, 2023 • more by Scott
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Evie Totty: “It was ok.”
It was probably better than 'OK' - certainly much better than his - not even recent - stories. I was one of the few people who didn't like Signs so yeah.
The last film I thoroughly enjoyed by him was Unbreakable and that is one of my favorite films of all time.
It's a fascinating look at whether or not those with MPD or DID or whatever they call it these days (people who have created alternate personalities in order to protect themselves from trauma) actually have physical changes.
And then the twist at the end. Not your normal M. Night twist but there nonetheless. With a sequel announcement a few months later.
That said: Worth seeing? Yes Worth repeat seeing at a theater? No but sure at home.
− May 10, 2017 • more by Evie • log in or create an account to reply
Evie Totty: The twist showed Bruce Willis at a bar giving the name of 'Mr. Glass' as a weird case 15 years earlier (Unbreakable was released in 2000).
And this is what leads to the Unbreakable/Split sequel. I'm guessing that Bruce Willis' character from Unbreakable - David Dunn - will be hunting down MacAvoy's Beast.
Of course I will check it out - but with low expectations.This reply contains spoilers. Reveal it. − May 10, 2017 • more by Evie
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Erik Bates: “It was ok.”
Not much more to say here that Scott and Evie haven't already said. I'll just leave it at that.
− July 5, 2017 • more by Erik • log in or create an account to reply
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