Divisé

The King is back in full force. While others pound it into you for two hours and go soft at the end, Shyamalan spends more than half the film escaping to comedic proprieties that are quite creepy knowing that three young girls are being held against their will in the basement. While McAvoy is cutely tripping on his tongue, or strictly driven by OCD (if the Academy wasn't so exclusive to certain genres, the Oscar nomination would have been there for him), somewhere in the back you begin to sense a creeping evil. The last half hour is pure phantasmagoria driven to the extreme, but so precisely handled cinematically that the dark vibe will knock a hole out from within your head. Anya Taylor-Joy will be a big star one day (hopefully outside the genre). PS: The bar scene isn't gratuitous - it's a confident and bold joke that harkens back to a time when some people and some things made us feel confident. (2017-01-19)

I, too, feel split about this film, but given that it's celebrating a milestone (it has correctly topped the 3000 rated film number) it deserves a weaker four stars. So I'll start with the praise. James McAvoy, I've noticed a marked improvement in him lately and few could deliver such an intense performance as he does here, but the biggest discovery is Anya Taylor-Joy, who has already shown in both The Witch and Morgan that horror is the way to go. Here, on top of that, she shows that she has more than just kissable tits and her naturally beautiful shape literally took my breath away. That at 20 she can even play tears so believably, hats off to her, this girl is going to do great things. I also liked the appealing cinematography and definitely a breath of fresh air to the kidnap thriller genre. The finale is pretty intense, too. There are more issues though. The first thing that jumps out is the level of humour, not that I didn't laugh, but it didn't really suit a disturbing psychothriller. Also, the trailer and promotion touts 23 different identities in one body, but in the film we only get 5, of which 3 are interesting. The flashbacks and scenes with the psychologist severely slow-down the pace and are boring. And don't expect thrills or gore, this is a pure psychological thriller. I liked last year's The Visit much better, yet I admit that Shyamalan and James Wan are the only ones who can serve up solid mainstream horror. 70% (2017-01-21)

An uncompromising thriller about everything bad being good for something. James McAvoy shines fully, supporting characters deliver adequately, and if it weren't for the fact that the script occasionally pushes too much, I would leave with nothing but applause. The subject matter, which is professionally close to me, is just sufficiently overdone at the edge of the supernatural, so it could perhaps open the eyes of a few people. M. Night Shyamalan is, to my great delight, once again being hailed by the public as the king, but I don't plan to welcome him back. Because, for me, he never left. (2017-01-19)

Behold, infidel, who said that the genius visionary and director with Indian roots M. Night Shyamalan is well past his prime. After a series of commercially not very successful (but in my opinion definitely not bad) movies, he presents a film that deals with an incredibly interesting idea, which is also supported by practically perfect acting performance by James McAvoy. I have no idea what’s going through Shyamalan’s head when he’s coming up with such complicated premises, but I have to say that he’s doing a terrific job of putting his ideas on the screen, and mainly, he’s stirring up such emotions in me that I’s never come up with them myself. While watching this film, I actually felt that I was watching something that is rewriting the history of film and something that there will be lectures about in universities. That’s the kind of impression this movie made on me. (2017-01-21)

They say Shyamalan is back with this film, but I have the feeling that he never fully left. With a few exceptions, he's still doing the same stuff: ghost stories, or at least thrillers, often with naturalistic elements, where the primary role is played for 90 percent of the film's running time by a crystallizing twist that more or less shocks at the end. But once the rules are set, it's good to stick to them. And so, when the whole film has the undertone of the reality of the laws of physics of the contemporary world, it is good to stick to them for the whole duration, because that final game-changer irritated me a lot. And this is one of the reasons why Now You See Me, which pissed off many a film fan with its digital trick escapades, was a flop. Maybe at least McAvoy will get an award for his performance, it was awesome! (2017-01-29)