The James McAvoy Intense Thriller On Streaming Is His Greatest Performance
James McAvoy and his award-winning performance in Split is now streaming on Peacock. If you have yet to see this gem of a movie, you’re missing out on a superb acting performance.
Split, starring James McAvoy, is now streaming on Peacock.
Split stars James McAvoy in eight different roles, playing a main character who is said to have 23 distinct personalities. The plot highlights Kevin Wendall Crumb, a psych patient of Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley).
Crumb is a longtime patient of Dr. Fletcher, who has been working with him to better manage the manifestations of his DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder). When Dr. Fletcher begins repeatedly receiving late-night emails from some of Kevin’s alters, she becomes suspicious that one (or two) of his darker alters have taken over and are up to no good.
However, the plot isn’t so straightforward. There are really three different plots running throughout the movie, which is a small part of the film’s magic. James McAvoy has 23 (or 24) different personalities, and the movie has at least three.
Another notable storyline running throughout the movie is the kidnapping of three young girls. James McAvoy’s character (Dennis) kidnaps three teenage girls at the beginning of the movie and later claims that they are to be well-kept as food for the mysterious 24th personality, “The Beast.”
With more than a 2,000 percent ROI (return on investment), Split was the most profitable movie of 2017.
Simultaneously, viewers have a third storyline to follow concerning one of the kidnapped girls, Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy). The film slowly shows audiences some of the troublesome situations Casey has faced throughout her life to allow viewers a better understanding of her depth and resilience.
Written, directed, and produced by M. Night Shyamalan, you can expect plenty of twists and turns to arise as you watch Split. You can also expect to see James McAvoy deliver a crazy good performance as he is able to portray each personality so clearly that you won’t have any trouble identifying each switch.
Split is the second installment (though not marketed as such) in the Unbreakable Trilogy, consisting of Unbreakable, Split, and Glass. It was deemed the first “stealth sequel,” as the tie-in to Unbreakable isn’t revealed until the end of the film.
All three movies were written, directed, and produced by M. Night Shyamalan, and they all have a running theme of main characters who possess superhuman powers. Each movie somehow ties into the other, but they are all three distinct, standalone stories.
James McAvoy’s character Kevin is the star of the show in Split, but you will see him (along with the other two main characters of the series) again with another stellar performance in Glass. The artistic and tangled web weaved by Shyamalan in the making of the series is one of his greatest creations.
Despite James McAvoy’s performance, Split was the subject of controversy over the portrayal of people with Dissociative Identity Disorder.
Split was filmed for around $9 million and performed well at the box office. Worldwide, the movie brought in more than $278 million. With more than a 2,000 percent ROI (return on investment), Split was the most profitable movie of 2017.
The movie was nominated for more than a handful of awards, and James McAvoy personally took home two of them. McAvoy won Best Actor from the San Diego Film Critics Society and Villian of the Year from the Seattle Film Critics Society.
Though the movie received raving positive reviews from top critics, the mental health community had a different view of the film’s content. Dissociative Identity Disorder campaigners felt like the movie stigmatized those living with identity disorders and that patients could be negatively affected by the film, claiming that the portrayal of the disorder was based on fear, ignorance, and sensationalism.
The majority of audiences felt much different about Shyamalan and James McAvoy’s display of mental illness. The movie portrayed Kevin as an extraordinary being who had been shattered along the way by various traumatic occurrences. His trauma made him a very strong, unique, and resilient individual, and it’s clear that Shyamalan meant to make a statement about the nature of humans and their ability to find new ways to survive in any given circumstance.
If you want to see it again or see for yourself just how groundbreaking James McAvoy’s performance was in the film, you can find Split streaming on Peacock with a subscription to the channel. The film has a “PG-13” rating and a runtime of around two hours.
