Film: Glass
Cast: Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, James McAvoy, Sarah Paulson, Spencer Treat Clark, Charlayne Woodard, Anya Taylor-Joy
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: * * * *
In his fabulous new film “Glass”, the brilliant M Night Shyamalan explores the role of the inexplicably miraculous and the rational. Building up a spooky atmosphere, thrills and chills from the start, he cleverly uses the narrative framework of superheroes to steer the viewer to the end-lesson that love and compassion conquers all.
At the end then, there is only pity for the creature who assumes multiple personalities. His birth name is Kevin Crumb and James McAvoy is in top form as the child abuse victim turned pathological killer who terrorised victims (and viewers) in 2016’s “Split”. Those who haven’t seen “Split” will thrill to this film anyway which reunites the Beast with the indestructible, “Unbreakable” security guard David Dunn (Bruce Willis) and comic-book gallery owner and brittle bone disease patient Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson).
Enter psychotherapist Ellie Staple (Paulson) at the institution where the trio has been incarcerated. She tries to convince the trio that they are paranoid, in other words, “suffering from delusions of grandeur.”
But the viewer knows otherwise, as do secondary characters in the film like Dunn’s son, Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark), who supports his father’s vigilantism; Elijah’s mother (Charlayne Woodard) and young Casey Cook (Anya Taylor-Joy) the sole survivor of the horrific abductions in “Split”. Price is dismissive of the havoc he creates and is not troubled by ethics. Like Dr Staple, he has an agenda.
Moviegoers might well view “Glass” as M Night’s cinematic essay on the existence of super-humans. But your reviewer prefers to think the medico-turned film-maker is really addressing the mystery of God.