WRITER-DIRECTOR M Night Shyamalan’s mind-bending thriller orchestrates a head-on collision of intriguing characters from his earlier features, Unbreakable and Split.
As brittle and transparent as the title suggests, Glass unfolds in a menacing present day populated by super-powered heroes and villains.
Shyamalan’s confidently executed but emotionally starved conundrum pretends to defy well-worn comic book conventions but ultimately abides by them within a narrative framework which includes an obligatory twist – the filmmaker’s laboured trademark since his Oscar-nominated The Sixth Sense.
Cinema audiences with limited exposure to the Marvel or DC Comics universes will be able to second-guess the writer-director’s sleights of hands and will be surprised and disappointed by how linear the central plot turns out to be.
Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson deliver muted performances in keeping with the film’s largely predictable design, both fading into the background as James McAvoy reprises his show-stopping role as a killer with multiple personalities.
The Glasgow-born actor careens between a menagerie of colourful misfits at dizzying speed, altering accents, mannerisms and posture.
Dr Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) is a psychiatrist who specialises in a specific delusion of grandeur: individuals who believe they are superheroes.
Working out of Raven Hill Memorial Hospital in Philadelphia, she oversees the treatment of three intriguing individuals: zoo employee Kevin Wendell Crumb (McAvoy) aka The Beast, security guard David Dunn (Bruce Willis) aka The Overseer, who can unmask sins through touch, and Elijah Price (Samuel L Jackson) aka Mr Glass, whose brilliant mind is trapped in a fragile body.
Aided by a team of nurses, Ellie challenges her patients’ self-belief, asking them to entertain the possibility that science can explain the glittering facets of their twisted psyches.
Glass is fashioned around splashy set pieces including two brutal showdowns between McAvoy and Willis. Paulson counters all the pent-up testosterone by shrouding her shrink in mystery but in terms of compelling narrative arcs and satisfying resolutions, this Glass is only half full.
RATING: 6/10
DAMON SMITH
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