Go read the book instead

Rating: 1/10 (19 September 2000)

Stanley Kubrick was like the proverbial little girl with the curl...when he was good, he was very, very good, and when he was bad, he just *stunk*. This film, sadly, is one of the latter occasions.
The book, a dark and frightening masterpiece, is hopelessly gutted and all the characters turned into caricatures by a director apparently obsessed with his own cleverness. The ending is inexplicably altered (one of the lynchpins of the original story being thereby removed), and we see none of the loving but dysfunctional relationship between the parents.
Danny, the central character, doesn't have confusing internal visions - instead, he behaves as though he should be seeing a psychiatrist, talking to himself in an "exorcist"-like voice.
Dick Halloran, who in the book is a major supporting character, becomes a token cameo.
The scariest scenes in the book, so leisurely and haunting, are either removed entirely or changed into cheap and gaudy shocks.
Nicholson is his typical over-the-edge self, and is horribly miscast as the conflicted semi-alcoholic father with a history of childhood abuse living who slowly becomes the abuser under the 'guidance' of the hotel. Shelley Duval's performance is flat, and gives no indication that she is slowly beginning to fear her husband.
Do yourself a favor and just re-read the book one more time.