Dolores Claiborne

Selena St George returns to her Maine island home to be reunited with her estranged mother Dolores. Dolores has been charged with the murder of her long time wealthy employer Vera, and all the evidence points to her guilt. Inspector Mackey leads the investigation, however his view is tainted as he failed to convict Dolores for the murder of her husband Joe, almost 20 years ago - his only unclosed case. As the present murder is investigated the truth about the past is slowly revealed.

How many Hollywood films give good roles to women. Not many - certainly not older women. This stands out because it has three good roles for women and a very strong supporting cast. The story is compelling, the present murder is slowly revealed, while the back story between Dolores, Selena, Joe and Vera is slowly spun out in memories. The various strands are all gripping - the level of detail and back story is excellent. The way the past is weaved into the present is well handled and you never feel like there's too much going on - each strand compliments the others.

The flashbacks are well filmed - each memory is painted bright with sunshine and gaudy colours. Like Selena's memory, it all seems better in hindsight. The present is filmed in pale greys, not even flesh colours come across - everyone looks ashen and grey. The director also deserves praise with the way he blends the present scenes into the past - the camera moves slightly revealing past action. At the end, every story is revealed and it's very satisfying.

As I said, the cast are excellent. If Bates got an Oscar for Misery then she more than deserved one here. She is superb in older and younger roles. She has some annoying habits, mainly the phrases she uses - but she brings out so much hurt, so many layers and so much resentment really well. Jason-Leigh is as good as always and is suitably disturbed - she is very well matched by her younger version, Ellen Muth, who matched Leigh's manner and speech well. Parfitt is an excellent Vera, she has a smaller role but deals with the changes very well. The support cast are all excellent - three stand out. Strathairn is excellent as the abusive Joe, Plummer is great as the cop, who turns out to have as many unresolved issues as Selena. The cast is rounded off by John C Reilly, who is always great.

Overall this is a well-acted compelling story. It lacks the sudden horror of Misery, but is a much more fully developed character piece.

It isn't quite fair to say that 'Dolores Claiborne' is a one-woman show, but let's face it; it's pretty much a virtuoso performance from Kathy Bates. She dominates virtually every scene she's in, shows tremendous range, from tender to sour and bitter, to borderline maniacal, and leaves you wondering who else on Earth could possibly have pulled it off.

That's not to belittle the rest of the cast. The other actors are adequate at very least, and Judy Parfitt puts in a performance as the bedridden Vera Donovan, which is the one time that Bates is slightly overshadowed.

Briefly, a middle-aged, working-class widow (Bates) in a small Maine town (where else, for SK?) is suspected of murdering her rich, elderly employer (Parfitt) in an apparently open and shut case. Christopher Plummer is the nasty lawman who is convinced she also killed her husband years before. Meanwhile, her estranged daughter from New York comes up to cover the story for a newspaper, and... well, you don't really need to know any more details before seeing the movie.

It's adapted from a Stephen King novel, and being a drama rather than a supernatural story, it has a flying headstart, being in the company of 'Green Mile', 'Stand By Me', and 'Shawshank Redemption' rather than 'Christine' or 'Salem's Lot'. Whereas it isn't in the exalted league of those movies, it's miles ahead of most of the horror adaptation of King stories. Take Bates out and it might be rather ordinary, but as it it, Dolores gets a very solid 7.0 from me.

When I picked up the DVD of Dolores Claiborne, I wasn't sure of what to expect. I remembered that a lot of people were complaining that this wasn't Misery, starring Kathy Bates, who stars here, and the pacing was a bit off. However, when I was watching it, I was fully gripped into it's very gripping storyline of "Did she or didn't she?" and Kathy Bates pulls off another stunning performance (she never dissapoints me). All the other actresses, from Jennifer Jason Leigh, Christopher Plummer, to a then unknown John C. Reilly, also put out great performances. The direction of Taylor Hackford is top notch, and probably the biggest thing here is the cinematogrpahy, which is stunning with all the period photography (dull and grey at present, colorful in the past) and the eclipse photography is nothing short of stunning. A very surprising and entertaining watch,

If there is one thing I always fear, than it must be movies about bad marriages, an abusive husband, child abuse ... How often do you get a good movie with such subjects. Not very often, because most of the time these are awful TV-movies that seem to be written at a rate of at least one an hour. Always following the same concept, always trying to make the poor viewer cry his eyes out while saying that that poor woman / child didn't deserve to be treated that bad. Now don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not saying that it should be tolerated. Men who do such awful things can't be punished hard enough, but the movies that are made about this subjects are complete crap most of the time.

"Dolores Claiborne" tells the story of a woman who is accused of murdering the wealthy woman she worked for as a maid in Maine. When her daughter Selena finds out that her mother is accused of this crime, she immediately returns home from New York, leaving her job as an important reporter behind for a while. But she doesn't return to support her mother as you might expect. No, she's almost certain that she did it and she seems to try to get a good story out of it. But gradually she finds out what really happened and in the meantime some awful things about Selena's troubled childhood, the awful family life,... come floating at the surface again.

I know that I said in the beginning of this review that most movies with such a subject are plain crap, but there are always expectations to every rule and "Dolores Claiborne" certainly is one of those exceptions. It was written by Stephen King and it shows. The man knows how to build up suspense and certainly can give you an uneasy feeling while reading his books or watching one of 'his' movies. And "Dolores Claiborne" has a lot more depth than you might expect at first. The only thing is that they have managed to disguise it, not giving away too much information at a time. Only at the end of the movie you'll fully understand what has happened and what the reason was for both women to react the way they did.

What I also liked, next to the story, was the way everything is shot. All the scenes in the present are shot in those cool blue tones, but these blend seamlessly into the flashbacks that were shot in vivid colors. This gives an extra touch to the story that certainly works. You know exactly what is the present and what is the past, but those colors also add a lot to the drama.

But the way a movie was shot alone doesn't make it good of course. That's what good actors who do some excellent things are for. And that's also exactly what you'll get from Kathy Bates, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Christopher Plummer... Jennifer Jason Leigh is nice as the daughter, but it's Kathy Bates and Christopher Plummer who give away the best performances in my opinion. Bates is stunning as the tormented woman who's personality seems so strong, while in reality she is a broken soul who wishes for nothing much but to die as soon as possible, so all her misery can end. And I also loved Plummer as Detective John Mackey who's hate against Dolores is so big, because she is the only spot on an almost spotless career. He has solved all his cases except for one and he'll not rest until he can send Dolores to jail.

All in all this is a very good and suspenseful movie that never tries to become a tearjerker, despite the heavy subject. It offers some great acting, nice photography and a good story. That's about all I can wish for in a movie and I give it at least a 7.5/10, maybe even an 8/10.

Few Stephen King works of fiction translate well to the screen. Horror elements are best left described rather than shown - so that the darkest recesses of our own imaginations can fill in the details. The horror visions of others may or may not affect us the same way - more often than not, they fall short of true terror.

But DOLORES CLAIBORNE is the exception - a masterful condensation of the Stephen King novel of the same name. More compact and deeply psychological than the novel, the film focuses almost exclusively on telling the story (in both present-day AND multiple flashback story lines) of Dolores Claiborne and her daughter, Selena.

Charged with murdering her wealthy but crippled employer, Dolores (Kathy Bates) is reunited with her estranged daughter, Selena (Jennifer Jason-Leigh). Sullen, brilliant, but deeply disturbed by a past that still obviously haunts her, Selena returns to the lonely and isolated Maine fishing village to help her mother face the legal and familial issues raised by the murder accusation.

We learn that Dolores had previously been suspected of killing her abusive and alcoholic husband. The same detective who had been unable to press the case 17 years earlier is now assigned to the new investigation. And as his work proceeds, secrets from the past reveal themselves, through brilliant use of flashbacks.

The acting by all concerned is first rate, with Bates giving probably her finest non-Oscar-nominated performance. Jason-Leigh is spot-on as the psychologically damaged and cynical Selena - more a victim than even she knows. Christopher Plummer is excellent as the detective.

Taylor Hackford's direction is absolutely brilliant - as is the use of color saturation and creative scene blending and transition to move seamlessly between present and past.

This is an outstanding film - well worth the Oscar nominations it received (as well as those it did not!). HIghest rating!