Atmospheric, but overrated thriller

Rating: 7/10 (18 March 2010)

Arguably one of the most loved/loathed "haunted house" thrillers ever. Stanley Kubrick/Jack Nicholson fans cannot seem to praise it enough, while fans of Stephen King's legendary novel are decidedly more lukewarm towards it. Personally I find the film rather schizophrenic, which leaves me somewhere in the middle. Anyone hoping to see even a marginally faithful adaptation of the King novel will be sorely disappointed as aside from the very bare bones of the story, many of King's memorable set pieces and much of the emotional pull of his story has been abandoned. Aspiring writer Jack Torrance and family are hired on to become caretakers of the oppressive Overlook Hotel during its off season in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains. Despite the threat of isolation and stories of a prior caretaker who went mad and murdered his family, the Torrances persevere and find out that the hotel has some rather nasty spooks determined to set Jack against his wife and son. Director Kubrick provides a chilling and ominous atmosphere thanks to hypnotic cinematography and amazing sets. The corridors of the hotel seem to go on forever. The film has its decidedly chilling moments – particularly the appearances of murdered twins, Nicholson's ax-wielding attack on wife Shelley Duvall and a memorable chase through a wintry labyrinth. Unfortunately, it has some glaring problems narratively and with its lead performance that cannot be overlooked. The title of the film is the slang term given to a psychic power possessed by both Danny Lloyd as the son and Scatman Crothers, as a hotel chef. In the King novel, the power was a major player in the story. In the film, both Danny and his power seem an afterthought and the hotel – which was decidedly malevolent in King's story – comes across as rather a neutral entity that just houses nasty specters. Danny's primal fear that his father will turn into a monster that will murder he and his mother is oddly muted in the film – largely because Kubrick treats the characters and their emotional plight as of little consequence and is much more concerned with setting the stage for Nicholson to enact his raving madman performance. Sadly, Nicholson's much-ballyhooed central performance nearly derails the film. At no point does anyone buy him as a caring husband/father who makes a shocking transition into a psycho. Instead, Nicholson plays him from the outset as a creepy nut with pedophile mannerisms to such an extent, that it becomes impossible to believe that anyone would follow him into another room much less into a 3-month isolation with a young child. While Lloyd is largely relegated to prop status speaking in a strange voice and drooling, Nicholson stomps and chomps the scenery sputtering, snarling, and hissing in between inappropriate one-liners. There is no doubt that his madman act is impressive, but it is also one-note and robs his character of any sympathy. Seriously, from frame one there is not one moment where he seems relatively normal and there is no moment where he shows any reluctance in his descent into madness. This film also serves the dubious distinction of marking when Nicholson's performances segued from real acting into caricature until About Schmidt came to the rescue. By contrast, it is not until reflection that one realizes Duvall, as his terrified wife, has delivered the film's best performance and shown him up. Additionally, the final shot of the film, which is apparently supposed to be a surprise, is anything but, indicating that Kubrick and his writers are not overly familiar with horror genres conventions. Yet for all its faults, the atmosphere and lavishness provided by Kubrick is a definite must-see in that few subsequent thrillers have been able to compete with it and he does provide moments they stay with you, even if the end product is not as impressive as some of its parts.