Split is about a man who has dissociative identity disorder or multiple personalities which is hard to put off. The movie starts with Casey at a classmate’s birthday party in the neighborhood mall. She’s uncomfortable, and obviously doesn’t belong there. After her ride fails to show up, she hitches a ride with two of her classmates, Claire and Marcia. However, their driver, Claire’s father, doesn’t show up in the driver’s seat. As the camera slowly approaches the father packing gifts in the trunk, we realize that we are watching from the perspective of a malicious force. A strange man steps into the car instead of Claire’s father. After knocking out Claire and Marcia, he turns to Casey with an irritating face. And the opening scene is filled with tension.
The girls’ captor is revealed to have dissociative identity disorder, which means 23 different personalities control this one body; he has a spirited nine-year-old, an obsessive-compulsive brute, a disciplined and proper English woman. The main personality, Barry, is a fashion designer with a generally happy attitude and motivation to get past his condition. His scenes with his therapist Dr. Karen Fletcher have nearly as much stress as the scenes with the three girls as they attempt to escape from the bunker, he brought them to.
In my opinion James McAvoy is an amazing and remarkable actor. Not only because he has to play difficult personalities, but because the way he distinguishes between each is so specific. Just when you see him you can tell just by his posture which alter he is. And when he switches personalities, he occupies them wholly in his speech, mimics, and even the way he moves his jaw and talks. Though he’s certainly playing the role.