After three girls are kidnapped by a man with 24 distinct personalities they must find some of the different personalities that can help them while running away and staying alive from the others.

Birthday parties are a drag. Especially if you are Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy) the artistic outcast. The party ends and birthday girl, Claire (Haley Lu Richardson) friend Marcia (Jessica Sula) and Claire’s kind father (Neal Huff) offer to give the artsy chick a ride home when hers doesn’t show up. The kids pile in the car and Mr. Benoit tosses presents and leftovers in the trunk.  A moment goes by and a stranger plops down into the front seat of the car. Before the girls have time to process what is going on, the gent dressed in black sprays their faces with chloroform and it’s lights out.  See? Told you birthdays were dumb.

The man is, of course James McAvoy. Although at this point in the story we are not sure who he is to be exact. You see, McAvoy’s character has 23 personalities swimming around in his head, all of them anticipating the arrival of a 24th manifestation. Segmented very decisively, all are united in preparing for the arrival of this new persona that has major plans for everyone, including the three girls that one of them just kidnapped and locked in a subterranean lair.

The first act of the film sets up the horrible predicament the girls are in while introducing the multiple personalities living inside their captor’s head. There is Barry the fashion designer, Dennis the caretaker, Patricia, the elegant woman from London, and the charming Hedwig, an irascible 9 year old boy who is smitten with the prisoners.

We next meet Dr. Fletcher (Betty Buckley). Running a private practice out of her posh Pennsylvania penthouse, she has a particular penchant for practicing on individuals with multiple personality disorder. McAvoy is her patient and, in the first session we see between them he is Barry. Fletcher reverentially probes, asking why Barry emailed her for an emergency session, but Barry insists it was just “garden variety” problems. She suspects there is something going on when he emails again the next day for another session. Will she discover the disaster that is simmering in time to save the girls?

As the movie plays out we see Shyamalan pair things down to a minimal amount of characters, locations, and motives. It almost feels like a screenwriting thesis with the elements boiled down to the absolute minimum. This is a good thing for Shyamalan, who’s growing flourishes into the more bizarre have only gotten him into dicey territory. There are no aliens, no conspiracies to live in another era, just a deranged person and a growing threat. Shyamalan also does well to cast Oscar Nominee McAvoy as the chameleon-like individual with so many subtle traits. It is a disturbing treat to watch McAvoy literally change from one person to the next before our very eyes without so much as a subtle mannerism, a cocked head, a squatting eye, indicating that he is a new person. There is some great work here. We also get the delightful Buckley as the angelic psychiatrist who is understanding to a fault at times and always compassionate.

All of that being said, the movie teeters dangerously close to overstaying its welcome. At a generous running time of nearly 2 hours, there are moments that could have easily been trimmed or even cut altogether. I argue that Shyamalan is a very good filmmaker. He knows how to craft a plot. He also knows how to extract effective performances from his actors. He is also indulgent. The Sixth Sense was the perfect mix of restraint and revelation. While he doesn’t get the mix quite right here, it’s still entertaining.

It was said that after Pink Flamingoes, John Waters spent the rest of his career living up to that movie while Divine spent the rest of her career trying to live it down. To arrive on the scene like M. Night Shyamalan did with The Sixth Sense, was more of a curse than a blessing. With each entry into his collection of thrillers we expect a Serlingesque twist at the end. We want our brains bent with a ridiculous revelation. While understandable from an audience member perspective this is nearly impossible for Shyamalan to live up to and, frankly, unfair to expect. Split is not a perfect movie. It is overlong, a little indulgent, and there are a few cheesy bits, but it is still entertaining. Slow yourself down, go along for the ride, and enjoy the psychological trip. If you do you will be wholly satisfied even if our lead is a little scattered.