Glass an awkward step back for Shyamalan

James McAvoy in Glass. Image courtesy Universal Pictures.

Perhaps 10 years ago or so Glass would be more innovative and interesting than it is. A movie dedicated in large part to deconstructing superhero mythology was novel when writer/director M. Night Shyamalan first started playing with the idea with Unbreakable, but the influx of comic book movies and the need to analyze the genre has produced better versions of Shyamalan's newest movie, Glass. This, instead, feels like an amalgamation of ideas Shyamalan himself has already delved into in this very franchise, undercutting any sense of profundity he aimed for.

Officially the third film in the Unbreakable franchise, Glass connects the characters from the first film – Bruce Willis' heroic David Dunn and Samuel L. Jackson's Elijah Price/Mr. Glass – with the villain from Split, the multi-personality plagued Kevin (James McAvoy, still great in this role). The three of them are gathered together in an asylum under the watch of Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), who believes their powers are actually delusions they've conjured to compensate for traumatic pasts. Dr. Staple has three days to work through their issues and ensure them their lives are normal. As the three men debate their existence, David's son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark), Mr. Glass' mom (Charlayne Woodard), and Casey Cooke (Anya Taylor-Joy), who survived the first attack from the Beast, ask their own questions about the lives of their families and friends.

What remains somewhat unclear with Glass is the need to go backward with the origin stories. Both Unbreakable and Split dedicated significant parts of their films to answering questions about their characters' abilities. David has to overcome his own self-doubt about his abilities again, despite spending 19 years as an underground superhero. Kevin/Patricia/Hedwig et al already witnessed the arrival of the Beast and have spent two years kidnapping and killing girls in the greater Philadelphia area. They are established heroes and villains, capable of performing outlandish and beyond-human feats of strength, endurance, and invulnerability. By adding doubt only to eventually overcome that doubt, it shows Shyamalan didn't quite know how to go forward with the universe he developed.

 

It is additionally frustrating how poorly Shyamalan soul searches through his franchise. The premise of having three days to treat two serial killers and a violent vigilante is laughable in and of itself, and Glass does little to elevate it into something interesting. Even the one moment of highest intensity, the group therapy session with Dr. Staple, David, Kevin, and Elijah, lacks inspiration and tension. Dr. Staple's psychological skills are unconvincing, especially given how much David, Kevin, and Elijah have come through to discover their powers. The film can't really sell it's own disbelief, which reinforces the lack of point or direction for this entire endeavor.

Then there's the twist, because every Shyamalan movie has a twist. The twist in Glass is designed to add perspective and depth to this cinematic universe, but is on par with the events of films two, four, five, and six of the Halloween franchise. The swerve is handled awkwardly with insufficient foreshadowing, which is followed by yet another twist that is even weaker than the first twist. Shyamalan somehow adds too much foreshadowing and does too little of it, providing a rather frustrating ending just when the film was gaining a little momentum.

 

The ending underlines what how frustrating Shyamalan is as a filmmaker. He still is a pretty solid director; Glass generally looks good, with a creepy aesthetic that works really well for what the film has going for it. Shyamalan also has a knack for discomfiting viewers with subtle visual cues in lieu of jump scares, giving viewers enough of a heads up to remain freaked out about the ensuing moment. But whatever talents he has as a director, Shyamalan still cannot get out of his own way as a writer. The dialog, as always, is a mess. The twist on top of the twist is spurred by an out-of-character moment and some awful exposition. How that final twist is executed makes zero sense given the nature of the first twist. The questions Glass leaves are less philosophical than impractical, which is about the expectation for an M. Night Shyamalan film.

Review: Two out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: PG-13

Run time: 129 minutes

Genre: Drama

tl;dr

What Worked: James McAvoy, directing.

What Fell Short: Ending, dialog, writing.

What To Instead: Unbreakable