Poor M. Night Shyamalan can’t catch a break, can he? To say that the director of Glass has had a tumultuous, up-and-down career within the Hollywood machine would be quite an understatement. Unfortunately, things seem to be on a bit of a downturn for the hit-or-miss director once again after the poor critical reception of his most recent blockbuster, and he took it harder than normal.
During a lecture at the Stern School of business at NYU this week, Shyamalan said that he was in London, in a make-up chair, when he heard the bad news about Glass. “I cried,” he said. “We had great screenings of the movie around the world, so essentially, I wasn’t prepared,” the director continues. He would go on to say how “distraught” he was that day. “Honestly, I was feeling like, ‘Will they ever let me be different without throwing me on the garbage pile?'”
Shyamalan had initial success with The Sixth Sense in 1999 that led to a string of hits including Unbreakable, Signs and The Village. However, his next three films Lady in the Water, The Happening and Avatar: The Last Airbender were, to put it lightly, disastrous bombs.
In 2016, he made a roaring comeback with the spooky/cheesy Split, which, much to everyone’s absolutely delighted surprise, was a stealth sidequel to his second-best film, Unbreakable. Fan anticipation was rabid for Glass, and when it came out, well, it was met will dull fanfare and middling-to-bad scores from critics and audiences alike. Once again, fans decried the signature Shyamalan Twist (TM) as another thematically disappointing choice, and felt the film was missing a lot of the cheap, fun energy of Split.
Luckily for him, the pic was a major financial success, ushering in $246 million worldwide, which is nothing to break a brittle bone over. While the conclusion to the surprise Unbreakable trilogy may not have had the impact the director was looking for, it could have been much worse. After all, Shyamalan has gotten through worse ordeals, so I’m hoping his next project, whatever it winds up being, is a bounce back to form. Well, good form, anyway.
Glass is available on home video now; perhaps it’s worth another look?
