Shining but not luminous

Rating: 6/10 (24 January 2003)

Supernatural mysteries take many forms. Some are purely about the psychology of belief (for example, "The Blair Witch Project"); some present ghosts as banal facts of everyday life ("Truly, Madly, Deeply", and my own favourite, Kieslowski's "No End"); some depict literal terror ("The Exorcist") and some are just downright bizarre ("Twin Peaks"). The Shining is a highly peculiar but nonetheless effective amalgam of all these genres. Even at the end, the viewer has little more idea what is going on than the characters. I guess that's what makes its a mystery.
The film is chiefly remembered for the collaboration of its legendary director and its equally legendary star. Stanley Kubrick's mark is certainly clear, especially in the beginning: he shoots every scene as if something terrible is going to happen; then cuts away abruptly, the threat unresolved. The scenes with the ghosts are shot so as to appear like bad cases of superimposition: the spirits are somehow in the same rooms at the living, and not, at the same time. The tense score is intrusive but successful.
Jack Nicolson gives a good performance in the central role, but without the subtlety seen in his greatest films (see him in Five Easy Pieces for a truly great portrayal of a misanthropist). The other actors' performances are universally downright bad, in a possibly intentional parody of cheap horror films. The plot is likewise an assembly of corny, but beautifully executed, tricks.
This is a seriously weird film, more imaginative than most in its genre but ultimately no less silly. Make of it what you will.