Everything there is to say has already been said...

Rating: 9/10 (30 January 2006)

THE SHINING. Love it or hate it, it's still a classic. And the reason it's a classic is because it's good. Everything just clicks. It's in the use of space and silence as malevolent forces. It's in the peerless photography and the statical shots. It's in the performances, with Jack Nicholson typecasting himself forever as a broadly comic villain who's still terrifying even when he's hamming it up like Robert Newton possessed. It's in the unresolvable questions, which means this film is different - quite literally - to everyone who sees it. Are there time warps? Are the ghosts 'real'? Is it all in Jack's head? What the hell is going on with the flood of gore that the elevator disgorges? The explanations are there, certainly, but it's up to you to find them. Kubrick never pandered to the beer and popcorn crowd, but assumed a level of intelligence and a capacity for abstract thought in the viewer that sadly some people are incapable of, which explains the non-plussed reactions and negative reviews THE SHINING will continue to get for as long as it's in print. To love this film, you have to work at it. The rewards, rest assured, are there.
"Wendy, I'm home."