Glass. Picture: Jessica Kourkounis
M Night Shyamalan has had a number of missteps in his writing and directing career since his amazing debut with The Sixth Sense in 1999.
Searching for new ideas, he hit upon a concept to revisit three of his most popular and iconic characters.
These are David Dunn (Bruce Willis), the needy Philadelphia security guard from Unbreakable, who is physically indestructible; Elijah “Mr Glass” Price (Samuel L Jackson), from the same film, whose bones shatter like glass; and Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), the leering, shaven-headed, motormouth psycho from Split, who harbours 24 different personalities.
Set in the stately asylum, Raven Hill Memorial Psychiatric Research Centre, Glass plays out under the watchful eyes of Dr Ellie Staple, played by Sarah Paulson. Dr Staple is a psychiatrist who maintains these men suffer from the same mental disorder: they believe that they possess the super qualities of comic book characters. She needs to prove them wrong.
Glass. Picture: Jessica Kourkounis
Elijah has been incarcerated there for 19 years and is confined to a wheelchair in a drug induced state. David, who had become a hooded vigilante and Kevin, who had four cheerleaders shackled in a factory, are both captured and brought in for observation.
With the origins stories now safely left behind, Glass succeeds in revealing some of the darker secrets from Unbreakable. It also highlights the re-emergence of David, and his powers, and Elijah flexing his intellectual muscle again, helping turn everything on its head.
The key to this narrative is understanding the dynamics surrounding the three prisoners, and how they conjure up a plan to free themselves from these highly sanitised confines. Can the wheelbound Elijah and Kevin team up to escape their predicament?
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Cast: Bruce Willis, James McAvoy, Samuel L Jackson, Sarah Paulson, Anya Taylor-Joy.
Director: M Night Shyamalan.
Classification: 16 VL.
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