Maybe We're All Really Snowplows

Rating: 4/10 (8 September 2001)

Jack is an aspiring writer who takes a job as a winter caretaker for a huge, historic hotel, bringing along his wife and son for some peace and quiet. As he starts to learn more about the hotel, he discovers that the former caretaker killed himself and his family after going crazy due to the intense seclusion. But, he is yet to be discouraged from taking the job. The little family treks up to the hotel and the father immediately begins losing his mind.
To make the long story short: wife discovers husband has been writing about his decent into madness, husband gets violently hostile and tries to kill his family. Starts off pretty well, but it has far too many flaws to be anything special. First of all, Nicholson plays intense to it's hilt during his introductory scenes so it's impossible to tell at what point he actually goes insane. Second, this was not tailored for Stephen King fans. From watching this, you can tell this was made strictly for fans of Kubrick. The two styles clash and this film is unlike most of King's films because of the mind games Kubrick is always playing with the viewer. Third, it's overlong and doesn't make good use out of the time it has. Except for the opening credits, this film is perfectly skip-able.