Antonin

“The Shining,” a huge chamber play, where I can’t quite understand its success.First of all, the soundtrack at the beginning of the film grabs you immediately, it’s so simple, yet so memorable. And the location itself is fantastic, this huge hotel, the different rooms, everything empty, the snow, it’s all very strong. The visuals too, the way everything is graphically executed, are really well done. The acting, I have to say, really impressed me. Jack Nicholson plays it incredibly well, and Danny Lloyd’s performance was exceptional for his age. But I’m someone who needs a good and structured storyline when watching films. The storyline can be confusing, but it has to make sense at the end. Sure, you can follow how the characters slowly go insane, but not even remotely why. Nothing is explained. There’s no strong plot twist or a background story. Absurd things happen that you can’t make sense of, like the scene with the man in the bear costume or all work and no play makes jack a dull boy. Obviously, that shows how nuts all of these characters are, but it’s all just too abstract, without any deeper meaning. Aside from the very strong opening soundtrack, the whole thing felt quite monotonous. The strings keep building toward a climax that never really comes, and as a result, the tension fades. Because by the tenth time, you get that nothing will happen. It plays with you psychologically, and that’s clearly intentional, but it didn’t really work for me. On top of that, as good as the poster may be, you can basically guess the plot within the first ten minutes just by looking at it. Overall, the film didn’t convince me.