February 4th in Chicago, IL. Written and directed by former wunderkind turned "what the hell happened to that guy?" M. Night Shyamalan. To say I was a bit apprehensive about seeing this considering Shyamalan hasn't directed anything good in over 10 years with some notable bombs. But the trailer looked good, my wife and I were already at the theater so we gave it a whirl.
Like most Shyamalan films it is set in Philadelphia and is set around a man with severe personality disorder (James McAvoy) to the tune of 23 distinct personalities. One of the personalities decides to kidnap three teenage girls from the King of Prussia mall parking lot. Two of the girls, Claire and Marcia are popular and Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy) is a bit of a "goth" type. Making me wonder why she was ever even invited to Claire's party after Claire reveals her disdain for her. Luckily, it's Casey that proves to have her wits about her when the trio is brought to the villain's secret hideout. While the kidnapper weirds it up by showing his captive all his personalities (complete with wardrobe changes), his doctor, Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley) is trying to unravel the mess that is her patient and lead her to the missing girls (though she doesn't know that the missing girls are connected). So eventually Shyamalan gives you the big reveal and even tries to ham fist a connection to Unbreakable into the ending.
This was a pretty good film. Solid acting and Shyamalan does a pretty good job with mounting the tension. I wouldn't go so far as to say that he's returned to form but it's a good place to start. There's also a lot of things wrong with this film but I'll let my pals over at Cinema Sins tell yo about it. They do a very good job and I'm 4 months late on it. It's worth seeing.
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