Review: Glass

Since the events of “Unbreakable” years ago, David Dunn (Bruce Willis) has used his powers to act as a vigilante doing good in Philadelphia. His now-grown son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark) even helps out as kind of a hi-tech lookout. He has located Kevin (James McAvoy), the creep with multiple personalities from “Split”, who is still abducting girls (The film’s events take place mere weeks after the events of “Split”). Before David can put a stop to Kevin, they are captured by unknown persons. They wake up in a psychiatric facility run by Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) who tries to convince David that his superpowers are a mere delusion. Meanwhile, Kevin (and his other personas) stumble upon another patient of the facility, Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), the wheelchair-bound man from “Unbreakable” whom David previously encountered. Elijah is initially seen in a comatose state, but it is just a ruse, as he tries to make nice with Kevin (or whoever he’s talking to at the time) in the hopes of them breaking out of the facility for purposes only slowly revealed. Anya Taylor-Joy reprises her role from “Split”, whilst Charlayne Woodard plays Elijah’s mother, despite the actress clearly being younger than Mr. Jackson.

 

I was not looking forward to this 2019 M. Night Shyamalan (“The Sixth Sense”, “Signs”, “The Happening”, “The Visit”) film. I wasn’t writing it off sight unseen, but I wasn’t enthused either. I wasn’t too fussed with “Unbreakable” and I thought “Split” was his worst film to date by far. That’s saying a lot since this is the guy who gave us the awful and disappointing “The Village” and the rather goofy and unsatisfying “Lady in the Water”. This film is a continuation of both “Unbreakable” and “Split”. I think Shyamalan is a man of talents more modest than he seems to think. As a director he has a pretty good way with visuals, and as a writer he can come up with a nifty basic concept, but that’s about where it ends for me. These three films are basically Shyamalan’s superhero cinematic universe, predating the Marvel Cinematic Universe by quite a few years. In theory it’s kinda cool. But that’s Shyamalan for you, cool in theory, mixed in execution. For instance, I think “Unbreakable” ended pretty much where I would’ve started the idea. I suppose something similar could be said for “Split”, but James McAvoy is so unconvincing in that film that I don’t think it would’ve interested me a whole lot anyway. Well, with “Glass” we basically get something fairly close to what I would’ve preferred with “Unbreakable” even though I think Mr. Shyamalan is a much bigger fan of “X-Men” than I frankly am. Sadly, it also takes place in the same film that follows on from “Split”. The result is sometimes really interesting, sometimes really eye-rolling and stupid.

 

It would be a really cool and clever idea for a film that might’ve been enjoyable if it didn’t have James McAvoy unconvincingly playing several different split personalities, only one of which is even close to being effective, only maybe two of whom are even remotely menacing. Most performances in Shyamalan films are distressingly muted, but for some reason he allows McAvoy to run riot like a Looney Tunes cartoon character. Or multiple Looney Tunes characters, really. McAvoy, as with “Split” is a big flaw to overcome, though this film gets a fair bit closer to overcoming it than “Split” since he’s really only a portion of the film’s focus. However, the film is still pretty much all over the shop. Some of it is interesting and works, some of it isn’t and doesn’t, and all of it takes too long to get off the ground. The only decent thing about the first half of the film is Bruce Willis’ character. After “Unbreakable” this guy has basically become a low-rent “Batman”, and it’s kind of interesting. Willis gives one of the few committed performances he’s delivered in decades. Spencer Treat Clark is good too, returning as David’s now grown son. I liked what I was seeing, bring Clark back for this was a good move. I was less enamoured with Sarah Paulson’s superhero group therapy nonsense, which takes far too long to get to where it’s going, especially with Samuel L. Jackson spending a pretty good portion of the film in a catatonic state. Once he finally ‘wakes up’, the film starts to get interesting again, as Elijah proves to be somewhat of a Magneto character using McAvoy’s beast personality against David’s Wolverine meets Batman avenger-type character. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that Jackson’s character is much more interesting than Magneto ever has been in any “X-Men” film. Whilst each successive “X-Men” film seems to make Magneto less and less villainous (and thus neutered), Jackson’s character is revealed to be truly super-villainous, a supervillain who manipulates situations in order to create other supervillains. He’s truly, truly diabolical and evil without a care in the world for anyone or anything beyond seeing his Machiavellian ideas and theories come to fruition. ‘The Beast’ still isn’t in the film enough and McAvoy’s other personalities in too much of it, but overall I can say that there’s a heck of a lot more interesting stuff going on here than in “Split”, and by not having McAvoy play the main character helps a fair bit. Outside of Willis and Jackson the performances aren’t much cop. Anya Taylor-Joy is wasted, Sarah Paulson is boring and stiff, and Charlayne Woodard is just plain dreadful. Oh and note to the writer-director: Just because you’re not usually the worst actor in your films does not mean you need to put yourself in your films as an actor. Please go away.

 

Mr. Shyamalan is certainly a great ideas man, as aside from “Lady in the Water” I’d say his films at least are borne out of compelling ideas. However, he's a guy who clearly needs someone else to turn those great ideas into a great story and screenplay. Meanwhile I think he’s an uneven director, although he’s a fine visual stylist and pretty good with mood and tension. Then again, I probably like a couple more of his films than most people do (I gave favourable reviews to “The Happening” and “After Earth”, for instance). This slow-moving superhero fantasy is interesting and effective in fits and starts, and pretty ridiculous and stupid whenever James McAvoy is allowed to run riot with most of his personalities. Basically Shyamalan’s version of “X-Men”, it’s a real mixed bag but a big improvement over “Split”. I wanted to like this a lot more than I did, but I didn’t hate it which is a plus I guess. The music score by West Dylan Thordson (“Joy”, “Split”) is the highlight for sure.

 

Rating: C+