Just a single point...

Rating: Null/10 (15 March 1999)

I watched "The Shining" again tonight, as part of the saddest, but most satisfying, personal video retrospective I've every decided to watch. Reading the comments here, I must take exception with some of what others say about Shelley Duvall's performance. Yes, she plays Wendy as a dim bulb, and dim bulbs are usually annoying. But her face is the last 30 minutes of the film is the most unnerving mask of terror I've every seen. It is like Munch's "The Scream" come to life.
Remember that one of the directors who Kubrick emulated was Eisenstein, the master of type-casting. Though from comments I've read elsewhere I'm sure Kubrick wished that Duvall had bothered to learn her lines before the scenes, I think that Kubrick must have been satisfied with the shaky way Duvall lights her cigarette as she suspects she will have to cover for her bullying husband once again, with the way she stares at the larder door containing the raving madman who she knows will kill her, every nerve in her body straining to move forward and open it... it is certainly the best performance of hers I have ever seen.