THE SHINING
A film review by Dan Chodos
Copyright 1997 Dan Chodos
Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's Shining works on some levels, and fails on others. A family is left to take care of a Colorado hotel for the winter. They will be completely isolated, having only each other and the knowledge that some years ago, another caretaker killed his family due to 'cabin fever'. Yup, you guessed it, Jack comes down with a case of Cabin Fever and tries to murder his family. Luckily, his isolated son has something called the 'Shining', a sort of ESP where he can communicate and see into the future. The premise is great, but with in a space of 10 minutes Jack completely flips out, and we never uncover the mystery as to why. Soon afterwards the premise is nearly a means for Jack Nicholson to go from scene to scene shouting out catchy (and sometimes funny) phrases in a murderous rage. The setup is never developed masking the last hour as a handful of brilliantly directed and acted scenes that together don't add up to much. Nicholson and Kubrick make the film scary enough to keep our interest for the moment, but when its over you can't help feeling a little dissapointed. Where did the ghosts come from? Sure we can speculate, but what fun is that Jack?
Rating: 0
------------------------ +2 (4 Stars) +1 (3 Stars) 0 (2 1/2 Stars) -1 (2 Stars) -2 (1 Stars) ------------------------
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dchodos@worldnet.att.net
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