Could have been great

Rating: 1/10 (23 June 2008)

OK, I'm being deliberately over-harsh in the grade. Really, the movie probably deserves a three or four star rating. But it is my wont to skew low when I think a bad movie has vastly too high an overall rating. And this is indeed a bad movie.
The problem here is that the story just doesn't make any sense. It didn't make any sense to me, and, after a lot of reading online, it appears it doesn't make sense to anyone. There's vastly differing opinions over just what was real or imaginary and just what was going on. And you know what I think? I don't think Kubrick himself had a clue. I don't think HE could tell you who unlocked the door. He clearly wasn't the tiniest bit interested in telling a coherent story, he just threw in whatever bits seemed cool. A flood of blood from the elevator? Sure, that's cool! Who cares if it makes no sense! A quick unrelated shot of two unknown people making love, one in a bear costume? Wow, that's weird, throw it in! To me, this whole who-cares-if-it-makes-sense approach constitutes inexcusably bad film-making.
Seriously, by the time I saw the quasi-Twilight-Zone last shot, I had a clear revelation of what this movie reminded me of: The Planet of the Apes. No, not the great, original, Charlton Heston Planet of the Apes, the abortion that was the Tim Burton remake. But, more specifically, it reminded me of the experience of watching the DVD of that movie with Burton's commentary track on. Where he explicitly admits that he really had no idea what was going on with the ending. This seemed totally like what Kubrick was doing. The. Plot. Makes. No. Sense. I can see why King hated it.
I've never read the book, but I've read a fair bit online about differences between the movie and the book, and it seems clear to me that the *book* *does* make sense. So I come away with the strong sense that what we have here is a movie that utterly butchered the book it was based on.
One other thing I hated about the movie: the music. The music is just awful. I don't mean intrinsically, qua music. But it is SO heavy-handed. We CONSTANTLY have *overbearingly* suspenseful music-- even in scenes which aren't suspenseful at all. This is especially noticeable early in the film, before much of *anything* has happened yet. The music screams at you "Ooooo, this is a scary movie, so be scared!" whether something scary is happening or not. It frankly comes off as amateurish.
Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention that this film triggers a pet-peeve of mine, my least favorite movie device ever: the Pointlessly Cryptic Clue. In this case, it's "redrum". It makes NO sense. The kid has "the shining" (whatever, exactly, it may be) and therefore sees the future. That's why he has any clue at all. OK. So why is his clue *encrypted*???? Why is he yelling "redrum" instead of just "murder"???? Somebody give me some rational explanation of why it's backwards and requires a mirror to make sense of it. Pointlessly Cryptic Clue!
It's a shame the movie is so bad, because the basic premise seemed very promising. The notion of being isolated and snowbound in a big old hotel and someone going nuts from cabin fever seemed really interesting. You know what movie *I'd* like to see? I'd love to see this movie if Hitchcock had made it. Then, there'd be no question of supernatural stuff, it would all be purely psychological. Then, the music wouldn't be overbearing from scene one, it would be happy and upbeat, to lull you into thinking that they're going to have a happy time at the beautiful, luxurious hotel, so that the degradation into insanity comes as a surprise, instead of being telegraphed from the outset. Hell, Hitchcock might even have thrown in a delightful twist; for instance, maybe while the father clearly shows signs of strain from cabin fever, it turns out that it's actually the *mother* who has quietly gone nuts and is the one who actually goes homicidal.
Anyway, that's the movie I would really have liked to have seen. But I would have settled happily for a faithful, coherent adaptation of the original King book. I think Kubrick picked the wrong week to give up sniffing glue.