Dolores Claiborne

Plot synopsis:
Dolores Claiborne (Kathy Bates) works as a domestic servant on a Maine island. The film opens with Dolores having a struggle with her elderly, paralyzed employer Vera Donovan (Judy Parfitt) in her mansion, after which Vera falls down the staircase. Dolores ransacks the kitchen and is then caught by a mailman as she stands over Vera with a rolling pin, apparently intending to kill her. Vera dies and the police begin a murder investigation.
Dolores' daughter, Selena St. George (Leigh), a successful New York City journalist who battles depression and alcoholism, arrives in town to support her mother, despite her own doubts about Dolores' innocence. Dolores insists that she did not kill her employer, but finds little sympathy as the entire town believes she murdered her husband, Joe St. George (David Strathairn) almost twenty years earlier. Some of the town's inhabitants harass her by vandalizing her home, taunting her in the street, and driving by her house screaming at her. Detective John Mackey (Christopher Plummer), who was the chief detective in her husband's murder case, is determined to put Dolores away for life.
Selena also believes that Dolores killed her father, and has not spoken to her mother in over a decade. As the film develops, it is revealed that Joe was an abusive alcoholic, and that one night Dolores had threatened to kill him if he ever harmed her again. Dolores went to work as a housemaid for millionaire Vera Donovan in order to raise enough money to pay for Selena's education, and had gone to the bank to withdraw her money so she and Selena could flee Joe's abuse. The plan backfired, however, when the bank notified Dolores that Joe stole the money from Selena's savings account.
In the present, Dolores says that Vera had thrown herself down the staircase and begged Dolores to put her out of her misery. Mackey refuses to believe her, and reveals that Vera has left her entire fortune to Dolores. Mackey informs them that the will is eight years old, which nearly convinces Selena that her mother is guilty. Dolores decides that it is time to reveal the truth to Selena: she did in fact kill Joe, and it was actually Vera who suggested the plan to her. Dolores says that she had been pushed to the breaking point upon realizing that Joe had been molesting Selena, which Selena furiously denies both in the past and present. After a fierce argument Selena storms out, leaving her mother to fend for herself.
In a flashback to a scene some 20 years before, Dolores breaks down and confesses of her troubled home life to Vera. An unusually sympathetic Vera implies that she had killed her late, unfaithful husband Jack, and engineered it to look like an accident. Vera's confession forms a bond between the two women and allows Dolores to take control of her situation. As a total solar eclipse approaches, Dolores and the young Selena have an argument about Dolores' suspicions regarding Joe's sexual abuse. Selena flees home for the weekend to work at a hotel, where guests have flocked for the eclipse. Joe soon returns from working on a fishing boat, and as a treat, Dolores offers him a bottle of Scotch. After Joe gets drunk, Dolores reveals that she knows that he has stolen from Selena's account and molested his own daughter. Dolores provokes him into attacking her and falling down an old well, leaving him to die as he plunges to the stone bottom.
In the present, Selena hears the story on a tape left for her by Dolores, who had foreseen her departure. While on the ferry, Selena suddenly uncovers a repressed memory of her father forcing her to give him a handjob. Realizing that her mother was telling the truth all along, Selena rushes back to Dolores as she is attending the coroner's inquest. As Mackey makes a case to be sent to a grand jury in an attempt to indict Dolores for murder, Selena tells him that he has no admissible evidence, and that despite an often-stormy relationship, Vera and Dolores loved each other. Realizing that the case would very likely fail, Mackey reluctantly drops the charges. The film ends with Dolores and Selena reconciling on the ferry wharf before Selena returns to New York.

Tags: dramatic, violence, murder, flashback

Review:
Somehow this gripping, brilliantly-acted thriller was overlooked and underrated when it was first released in 1995, but it's probably the best movie ever made from a Stephen King story.Kathy Bates has never been better.
She's better here than about ten Oscar-winning actors I can think of, put together -- a one-woman textbook of how to act for the screen.Bates won an Oscar for MISERY, but she's better here, because the story and the character are more interesting, complex and challenging.
With flawless technique, and great depth of feeling, she delivers one of the finest screen performances of the 1990s.Okay, the denouement's a bit strained, and there's a sprinkling of stilted, hokey lines (Stephen King was never good at writing believable dialogue, and his addition of forced scatology and cussing doesn't make it any less stilted.) But overall the complicated story, which flashes back and forth over a period of twenty years, is extremely well-told.
Kathy Bates made quite an impact, so to speak, on the movie-going public with her bravura performance in another Stephen King adaptation, 'Misery.' But showy (and fun) as that role was, it wasn't really much of an acting part--the real heavy lifting in that film was done by James Caan in his quieter, subtler role as the object of Bates's affection.In 'Dolores Claiborne,' Bates finally gets a King role fully worthy of her range and subtlety.
It's a remarkable performance, and the actress is probably right to remember it as her best role.The rest of the film into which the performance fits creaks a bit in places (the final melodramatic scene at the hearing is pretty hokey), and it's complicated somewhat by Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance, which may be *too* good--her Selena comes off as so angry and selfish that we don't particularly *want* her to reconcile with her mother.
How the story manages to make such initially repulsive characters (all of them!!) develop into sympathetic (or at least pathetic) ones is of course Stephen King's special talent, expertly translated by the fine jobs by the screenwriter, actors and director of "Dolores Claiborne".
The cinematography is kind of obvious in its distinct color treatment of past and present, but the entire cast is inspired, including Kathy Bates' best-ever performance (she has stated so herself), especially in the flash-back scenes; delightfully virtuoso Judy Parfitt (you just keep hoping along for more Vera's scenes, and each one of them is a knockout); and reliable pros Christopher Plummer, David Strathairn (such an underrated actor!) and John C.
Even Jennifer Jason Leigh for once has her irritating mannerisms fit perfectly to build her terribly tormented character.That's what good story-telling is all about: even if you already know the plot from A to Z, you just want to see once again the way it unfolds, like a good scary fairy tale.
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.
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.
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!).
Stephen King is a master of story-telling as the past and present unfold in front of our eyes and we get one piece of the puzzle at the time up to the great climax at the end.Taylor Hackford also did a great job directing this movie.
Released at a time when a drama, even a dramatic thriller, coming from Stephen King would be known more for being a drama from the master of horror than anything else, Dolores Claiborne is still a surprisingly capable legal thriller with a remarkably intricate story.
Detective Mackey (Plummer), let Dolores get away once and damned if that nonsense was going to happen again.Unfortunately, Jennifer Jason Leigh, a genuinely gifted actor, is saddled with a part that forces her to play within the confines of a tortured soul, making her performance come off as forced and unconvincing, meanwhile Kathy Bates once again fills the screen with her powerful presence, delivering what has to be one of her best performances.
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.
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.
Reilly, Eric Bogosian (why 'Talk Radio is my favourite Oliver Stone movie and 'Under Siege 2' my favourite Steven Seagal film), David Strathairn, Christopher Plummer and especially, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and the Tony Gilroy script serves them beautifully.Unfairly, I tend to joke about director Taylor HACKford, but it just may be that he's a more contemporary model of such versatile directors from the past as Norman Jewison and Robert Wise.
You don't want to miss a second.The mere fact that this movie didn't make a clean sweep at the Academy Awards and walk with every Oscar is beyond me and probably the majority of the comments on IMDb. Stephen King's writing at its finest, the best possible dream casting, Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh gave monumental performances, I would say their career finest.
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'.
This is one of those movies I have on my must watch again list and have seen it numerous times, it never gets old.Being a fan of Stephen King, Kathy Bates, Jennifer Jason Leigh, David Strathairn, Christopher Plummer and John C.
Probably because it features only real people who most could relate to in real life.Kathy Bates is outstanding and probably up there with the best I have seen with her in the starring role, Misery would come a close second even though she got an Oscar for it, rather than this one.Early on some would regard this as a very dreary movie, which it probably is, just ignore that and continue watching all the way through.
This movie is a perfect portrait of this outrageously common injustice -- and how, in this case, a victim's strength of character prevailed and exonerated her on all fronts.I had the impression from trailers long ago that this was a typical Stephen King horror flick -- okay, maybe it was Kathy Bates smashing a window with an ax??That was very misleading.
It's actually taken me until now to watch Dolores Claiborne but better late than never.This is the very final Stephen King adaptation for me and that saddens me as I tend to very much enjoy them.Starring Kathy Bates, Jennifer Jason Leigh and the excellent Christopher Plummer this thriller blew me away to an extent I simply didn't expect.Set in New England (As all Stephen King tales tend to be) it tells the story of a woman arrested for the murder of the woman she worked for.
Over the course of over two hours the truth is gradually chipped away at until the highly impressive finale and series of twists.Kathy Bates & Christopher Plummer are on form as always and take this already masterful tale and truly make the characters their own.Also starring John C Reilly who would go onto do mostly comedy this is a near perfectly crafted little tale that begs the simple question "Why don't they make movies like this anymore?"Essential viewing.The Good:Cast knock it out of the parkBeautifully writtenVery well directedStunning locationThe Bad:Nothing springs to mindThings I Learnt From This Movie:Stephen King needs to write more books so they can adapt them into more movies before I start getting withdrawal symptoms.
Dolores' abusive drunken husband Joe St. George (David Strathairn) is revealed in flashbacks.Kathy Bates is great once again in another adaptation of a Stephen King psychological thriller.
Somebody in the town sends a fax of the local newspaper report to Dolores' estranged daughter Selena, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, who is working as a reporter in New York, when she gets this she returns to Maine.What follows is a gripping story which not only includes the present case but the death of Selena's father many years before.
As mother and daughter come together, secrets of the past merge with the harshness of the present.A terrificly well acted and well mounted drama doing justice to a great book, Dolores Claiborne thrusts family trauma to the front of an on going murder investigation.
The minor Stephen King novel makes for a surprisingly good film.Credit for the film's quality must be given largely to Kathy Bates, in the title role, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, who plays her estranged daughter.
This acting was excellent, including Kathy Bates, the brilliant Jennifer Jason Leigh, and great actor Christopher Plummer.
Kathy Bates,(Dolores Claiborne),"Bruno",'2000 played a very down to earth woman who loved her daughter very much and did everything to make certain she had a good education and free from the conditions that prevailed in her home town.
Of all of Stephen King's stories, Dolores Claiborne is one of favorite movies with an excellent cast, writing, and directing.
For starters, I am shocked that nobody received Oscar nominations especially Kathy Bates, the excellent Judy Parfitt, Christopher Plummer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, John C.
Reilly, Ellen Muth, David Straitharn just to name a few all provide excellent support in telling a story of a lifelong Maine woman Dolores Claiborne St. George who has an abusive husband played well by David Straitharn and a daughter Selena equally played well by Jennifer Jason Leigh and Ellen Muth.
The reasons:1) The dramatic bestseller story from Stephen King with.2) The professional direction of Taylor Hackford.3) The beautiful but in general cold pictures.4) The wonderful music from Danny Elfman.5) The great performances from all the actors, especially Kathy Bates.6) There were some funny dialogs where we could laugh.7) The makeups were very well made and the introductions into the telling story well executed.For every film fan of this genre I highly recommend it to see.
Dolores Claiborne is a moving,absorbing thriller that stays with you.Kathy Bates is a revelation in the title role.She deserved another oscar.Jennifer Jason Leigh is just as good as the daughter.Christopher Plummer,Judy Parfitt and David Strathairn are also excellent.9 out of 10..
Adapted from King's novel, the screenplay by Tony Gilroy is very different from the novel but tight and clever.Kathy Bates gives a fantastically rounded performance; with fine support from Jennifer Jason Leigh, David Straithan, Christopher Plummer, and Judy Parfitt.The direction by Taylor Hackford is suprisingly good.
The tension between Dolores (Kathy Bates) and her daughter Selena (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is very real.
The love Dolores has for her daughter Selena gives her the conviction to withstand years of hard living so that her daughter's life could be better.This is one of Kathy Bates' best roles.
The movie switches between the present and the past as the layers of each character's story and motivations unfold, showing a deeper side to Dolores and enabling Selena to finally grow up and see her mother for the resilient woman she is.
I've seen this movie many times and I always have the same reaction - Kathy Bates is simply a great actress and this is a fantastic performance..
Her mother, Dolores Claiborne (Kathy Bates), faces charges of murder when Judy Parfitt (Vera Donovan), the lady she was caring for, ends up dead.The movie is really about Dolores Claiborne's struggles in a small town in Maine.
The cast was outstanding, including Kathy Bates, Judy Parfitt, and Christopher Plummer; as well as Jennifer Jason Leigh and David Straithairn in a movie with a number of overlapping themes - strained family relationships, small town animosities, alcoholism, the overbearing boss, marital discord, murder...
The story revolved around the relationships between Dolores Claiborne (Bates) and the people in her story: her drunken, abusive husband (Strathairn), her overbearing employer (Parfitt), her estranged but feisty daughter (Leigh), and the tough local cop (Plummer).
Taylor Hackford directed this compelling adaptation of the Stephen King novel that stars Kathy Bates as Dolores Claiborne, a feisty woman living in remote Maine who is under investigation for the death of her long-time employer Vera Donovan(played by Judy Parfitt).
Dolores' daughter Selena(played by Jennifer Jason Leigh) now a big city reporter, goes back home to help her, but secrets from the past involving her father(played by David Strathairn) are uncovered that will change both women forever...
As for Jennifer Jason Leigh as Dolores's daughter, I didn't find her as intense as the aforementioned cast members, but she still did a good job.Anyway, if this movie doesn't make you feel like your breath got cut off, then I don't know what will.
The film concerns a woman, Selena (played by the underrated Jennifer Jason Leigh), who returns to her hometown island off the coast of Maine after her mother, Dolores (the brilliant Kathy Bates) is convicted of the murder of an eccentric woman she took care of for many many years.
The acting here was the most powerful point in the film, Kathy Bates was perfect, she and Jennifer Jason Leigh had some great chemistry together.
Christopher Plummer plays a detective investigating Dolores' case, and David Strathairn plays the abusive, drunken husband very well, making the audience really not like his character.Overall, "Dolores Claiborne" is an excellent adaptation to the novel by Stephen King.
Director Taylor Hackford, who's other accomplishments, An Officer and a Gentleman, Against All Odds, and most recently Ray, have established him as a Hollywood legend, creates a visually and emotionally stirring dark drama about evil, struggle and living a painful life with dignity.Hackford's ability to create a visual image, through his actors, the photography, the colors, settings, and locations, is, in my humble opinion, no more better showcased than in this film.If you are a fan of Steven King, Taylor Hackford, Bathy Bates, Jennifer Jason Leigh or dark family dramas, this is a MUST SEE film.I would be remiss if I didn't mention the exceptional performance by Judy Parfitt.
Every time I see this movie, I'm reminded that this is probably the finest screen adaption of a Stephen King novel (and what was probably his best book).Kathy Bates performance as Dolores is nothing short of superlative, even better than her turn in "Misery".
Kathy Bates as Dolores Claiborne; she showed how good she is as a frighting number 1 fan in Stephen King's Misery and she is just as phenomenally entertaining in this film.
Kathy Bates does an amazing job of portraying one of Stephen King's most powerful characters, and the supporting actors are also quite good.
Jennifer Jason Leigh and Christopher Plummer turn in fine performances, and Kathy Bates is fabulous, as usual.
Only after Delores is accused of killing her employer (an old witch) does Delores' daughter come to terms with what happened during her childhood and what lengths her mother went through to insure her a successful future.The movie is outstanding and Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh were gems as always..
The things that really impressed me was Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh's dazzling performances (also, keep your eyes open for Ellen Mull, who plays a younger version of Leigh's character, and couldn't look more like her, unless she was her.) It is a story about a New England maid, Dolores Claiborne (Bates), who is accused of killing the older, sick woman she worked for (Judy Parfitt.) Dolores's daughter, Selena (Leigh), comes back, and old secrets are revealed about the death of Selena's father (David Straithairn.) With two cops (Christopher Plummer and John C.
Meh. A big-city reporter (Jennifer Jason Leigh) travels to the small town where her mother (Kathy Bates) has been arrested for the murder of an elderly woman that she works for as a maid.Aside from the performances of Chris Plummer, John C.
Those roles were played by Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh, two women who have played these kind of characters in other movies, especially Leigh.
Bates has mellowed with age but this role here reminded of another nasty one she played in a film called "Misery." That movie, as this one is, was based on a Stephen King book.
Jennifer Jason Leigh is very, very good, Christopher Plummer is magnificent while Kathy Bates steals very single scene she's in in another superb performance.In conclusion, this film is most excellent and highly recommended.
Director Taylor Hackford, not known for working well with actresses, helps Kathy Bates give another superb performance (in yet another Stephen King drama, following "Misery").
I LOVE IT..I watch the DVD at least once a month..Jennifer Jason Leigh and Kathy Bates in the same movie..brilliant acting duo!
Not a coming of age film, but a story of a mother (Dolores / KathyBates) and daughter (Selina / Jennifer Jason Leigh) who should have been so together, but were so far apart.