Glass

So, there we were at the end of Split, being told that it was a stealth continuation of Unbreakable. And thus, fast forward two years, and Glass gets the whole band back together. Second Samuel L Jackson related post of the week. Say this for M Night Shyamalan, he thinks nothing of getting back Samuel L Jackson and then giving him nothing to say until half way through the movie. Jackson’s Mr Glass is practically a prop until the third act, when he shakes off his catatonia and starts talking. Up until then the stage directions are “Drool. No, not that much."

This leaves the heavy lifting to James McAvoy, who once again brings way too much personality to the role of The Horde. In one way, it’s great and creepy, and in another way, it’s just … off. Bruce Willis continues his late career streak of somehow not quite phoning his performance in, because actually picking up the phone would be more work than he’s feeling ready for.

And I’m not being quite fair. Shyamalan has two problems. The first is that he started so audaciously strong that he gets judged by the good stuff. The second is that he keeps trying to pull that off again, which isn’t possible. So he’s getting in his own way. Including by thinking that there’s any point in him doing cameos in his own movies. When Hitchcock did it, it was fleeting; a nod to the fans. He didn’t give himself lines and a backstory.

Shyamalan’s got a second wind since he started tanking in big budget movies. Small budgets work better for him; he’s got less pressure and expectation, and low budgets mean you have to be clever with the script and the actors. You have to suggest things which big money productions just show people, and suggestion is always a better way to pull the audience in. Glass is on the pricier end of his low budget renaissance, but it’s still on a shoestring, which works out for him. It’s fun that he keeps threatening a big finish with buildings and gen-pop in hella peril from a superhero showdown, and then stages the climax in a hospital car park with the property damage limited to dents in a police car and a van. It’s somehow even more fun that this was the plan all along.

Still, he’s still pushing away at the twists, heaven help him. Sarah Pauley is the one person in the movie with a regular job, and she seems to be objectively terrible at it. She’s the shrink who’s got just three days to talk The Horde, Mr Glass and whatever David Dunn calls himself this week into not believing that they’re superheroes. This does not go well. It goes so not well that if they had prizes for worst prison psychiatrist ever, her face would be on the statuettes. How the hell did she even get the job? Ah, well, there’s a twist there. She was not, in turns out, trying to do the job well in the first place. Good twist. Then there’s the twist on the twist, and I was going, ah now, give me a break.

Mileage may vary on this. In a way, watching Mr Glass win in the end is quite fulfilling. It’s a jump too far for me, but it might work for other people. The one thing I do hope is that the real twist is that this isn’t Shyamalan setting up a whole bunch of new movies. Whether you like what he’s done with this 20 years-in-the-making trilogy or not, he’s pushing his luck if he doesn’t quit while he’s ahead.