2019 Film Review: Glass (2019)

Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan
Written by: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: James McAvoy, Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson
IMDb Link

Before I get started, I just want to say that I'm putting together a new site for my reviews, where I have also posted my review for Glass. You can follow the link to my new site here.

Unbreakable was a piece ahead of its time, approaching super hero stories with a grounded and intimate perspective that saw the value in the both the literal and metaphorical value of super heroes. At the best of times, Glass reflects further development of Unbreakable's deconstructionist ideas, even if that development is coming nearly two decades and one super hero renaissance too late; the rest of the time, the film is so awkward and heavy-handed that the execution of those ideas devalues them.

Since Unbreakable, David Dunn (Willis), still super-powered and weak to water, is running his own security service with his son while doing secret super hero work on the side, in the process coming in to conflict with The Horde (McAvoy), all 24 identities of an extreme DID case, fresh off a few killing sprees after Split. The first third of the movie does a really good job of establishing the movie's tone and character motivations, jumping between the sombre heroics of Dunn and the creeping horror of The Horde's cult-like perspective on their superhuman identity, The Beast; the two come together in a way that is somehow both self-serious and unapologetically goofy, a factor that gets amplified when their conflict ultimately gets them thrown in an insane asylum alongside Elijah Price (Jackson), also known as Mr. Glass, under the care of Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), who seeks to cure them of their collective comic book delusion. Here the movie becomes slow, contemplative, toeing a strange line between things that are somewhat clever and things that are intentionally dumb, sometimes carrying the ideas re-established in the first third and other times beating the audience of their heads with self-aware super hero stuff, all while lacking that same self-awareness when it comes to the mental health stuff. Unfortunately, the film goes off the rails when it tries to ramp things back up again, packing thematically appropriate twists on top of completely mindless twists and never quite finding the clarity of purpose in presenting all of them when some don't mesh at all, getting silly in a bad way towards the final few scenes. None of this is helped by the film's dialogue, which has the same inconsistency, sometimes nauseatingly meta, and other times layered enough to be smart. Still, in this uneven mess there are a few standouts that made experience worthwhile, mostly in the performances.

McAvoy is incredible in his reprisal, shifting between each identity with the slightest adjustments in posture, expression, or tone of voice, creating images of people that are distinct from one another despite all occupying the same body. Similarly, his character is far more well developed in this, positioned with an opportunity to explore the character of Kevin Wendell Crumb, the man behind all of the identities, in a way that actually allows him to have an arc and be more than just a villain with a thematic tie-in to the ideas of the film. These two strengths allow for one incredible moment among several bad ones in the film's finale that makes what was once an object of horror completely sympathetic, and while the noisy nonsense happening around it could potentially drown out the weight of such a moment, McAvoy's performance keeps the film from falling in to disarray completely. There's also Jackson, whose performance is appropriately arch, sometimes little more than a twitch and at other times offering the most hammy of deliveries to make the movie's baffling dialogue digestible, even if Mr. Glass doesn't have the same nuance as he did in Unbreakable, and the most added to his story is a set of twists that do nothing to change the character.

It's the strange thing about Glass; so many aspects clash with one another, too over-the-top to be dull but not focused enough to work effectively most of the time, and yet when things fit together, the movie manages to shine. There's no shortage of intention, either; each step the movie takes, whether misstep or magic, is done with the most deliberate choice, almost trying to find a completely different movie in the movie the audience is looking for. It doesn't make for a particularly entertaining experience outside of the film's best moments, but the movie is still fascinating to behold for not just what it tries to do and succeeds at, but how it fails as well.

The Short Version: While the dialogue is painfully obnoxious at times and so many twists stacked on top of one another flatten the emotional impact of some of the later scenes, Glass manages to get by on a strong set of performances, particularly McAvoy and Jackson, a tone that isn't afraid to be a little goofy at times, and a few thematic punches I was impressed it even attempted to land.

Rating: 6/10

Published January 21st, 2019