The Completion of M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable, Split, Glass Trilogy

Kaleidoscope’s newest is on Blumhouse Productions, Blinding Edge Pictures, & Universal’s production of “Glass”.  Written & directed by M. Night Shyamalan, the movie stars James McAvoy, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Sarah Paulson, Spencer Treat Clark, Charlayne Woodard, & Anya Taylor Joy.  Rated ‘PG-13’, it has a running time of 2 hr., 9 min. 

The film begins 3 weeks after the conclusion of “Split”.  David Dunn (Willis) & his son Joseph (Clark) are working together.  Using his superpower abilities, Dunn, under his guise of The Overseer, has been protecting the public from criminals.   The 2 have now focused their energies on Kevin Wendell Crumb (McAvoy), the protagonist of “Split”, who suffers from DID (dissociative identity disorder); because of the latter, Kevin’s mind contains 20 separate personalities.  Collectively, he/they is/are known as The Horde.  Using an algorithm, Joseph has narrowed Kevin’s location to a triangular area of Philadelphia.  David seeks out Kevin &, near an abandoned factory, he sees someone who is an adult but is acting as a child—Kevin's identity named Hedwig.  David brushes against Kevin & ‘feels’ The Horde’s presence.  David goes into the factory & releases the 4 teenage girl hostages.  When Kevin returns & sees what has happened, the ‘Beast’ is unleashed on David.  As their fight spills onto the street, they are captured by the police.  David & Kevin are sent to a mental institution where they are placed under the supervision of Dr. Staple (Paulson); she is also treating Elijah Price (Jackson), known as Mr. Glass—thus uniting the stars of “Split’ & “Unbreakable”.  Dr. Staple says that she has been given 3 days to convince them that they are ‘normal’ people, not superheroes.  She has allowed those closest to the 3—Joseph; Mrs. Price (Woodard); and Casey Cooke (Joy), the survivor of “Split”—to visit them.  Act I ends with Dr. Staple continuing her persuasions & with a plan emerging among the three. 

Shyamalan experienced a critical & popular resurgence after he teamed with Jason Blum for 2015’s “The Visit” & 2016’s “Split”.  With the appearance of Willis’s Dunn at the end of “Split”, audiences’ anticipation & yearning for a conclusion to the David/Kevin/Elijah saga was set.  However—oh, did Night need an editor for his screenplay.  What starts out promisingly in both director & writer areas in the first act, s l o w s noticeably in the second act.  Shyamalan’s penchant for words overtakes the film’s momentum to a great extent.  Dialogue becomes prominent but lacks dramatic tension here; one longs for the act to quickly segue into the final act.  One ponders if Blum kept a hands-off approach here & did not oversee his wunderkind enough.  Night is also known as the trick-ending master; unfortunately, he provides several ‘tricks’/denouements that culminate with the one that should have been the sole one provided.  The film’s savior lies in the acting.  There are 3 terrific performances here and 1 that should be considered when the nominations for the 2019 SAG, Globe, & Oscar are announced for 2020.  For the latter we have the astounding James McAvoy; his 20 personalities that he displays are acutely drawn & thoroughly convincing.  One marvels at his seamless transitions; he is a master thespian.  The voters for the aforementioned organizations need to get over their aversion to nominating actors in scifi/psychological thrillers (“Silence of the Lambs” aside) & fully consider McAvoy’s tour de force.  While more subdued in comparison, Jackson & Willis create subtle yet powerful characters that ably support McAvoy & Shyamalan’s vision.  Paulson is cool & antiseptic as the supportive physician who is hiding more than they or we know.  Joy, Clark, & Woodard, unfortunately, give one-note performances that seem to vary little from what Shyamalan provides for in the script.  West Dylan Thordson’s score & Mike Giolakis’s score are evocative, powerful, & haunting and seem to understand Shyamalan’s vision better than the auteur.   

I give “Glass” 2½ out of 5 nuggets.  While what is on the screen is good, it could have been a much tighter, suspenseful, & epic presentation.  Hopefully, Shyamalan will learn from this & return to form of his major trio of successes: “The 6th Sense”, “The Visit”, &, especially, “Split.