Dolores Claiborne (film)
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| Dolores Claiborne | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Taylor Hackford |
| Produced by | Charles Mulvehill Taylor Hackford |
| Written by | Tony Gilroy |
| Starring | Kathy Bates Jennifer Jason Leigh |
| Music by | Danny Elfman Hendrik Meurkens |
| Cinematography | Gabriel Beristain |
| Editing by | Mark Warner |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | March 24, 1995 (United States) Sept. 8, 1995 (United Kingdom) |
| Running time | 132 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Dolores Claiborne is a 1995 film based on the eponymous novel by Stephen King, starring Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh. It was directed by Taylor Hackford.
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[edit] Plot
As the story begins, Dolores Claiborne is being interrogated by the police. She insists that she did not kill her wealthy employer, an elderly woman named Vera Donovan whom she has looked after for years. But since she is already believed by the public to have murdered her husband, Joe St. George, thirty years earlier, few believe her. One of these people, the antagonistic Detective John Mackey, remembers Dolores from the case of her husband, and is determined to put her away for life.
Dolores' daughter, Selena, a journalist, arrives in town to support her mother. Their relationship, however, is not a stable one, since they have not talked to each other for over a decade, mostly due to Selena believing Dolores to have killed Joe (although the death was ruled an accident). As the film develops, the audience learns more about Dolores' troubled past, and of how Joe frequently beat Dolores solely for the pleasure of it, until Dolores finally rebelled and warned Joe never to strike her again should he want to die a natural death.
The film's flashbacks also reveal that Dolores started to suspect Joe of molesting Selena, to the point that Selena wouldn't even talk about the subject. Dolores went to work for Vera Donovan as a housemaid in order to raise enough money for her to take Selena and flee Joe's wrath, but the plan backfired when Joe started stealing the money from Selena's account for his own interests.
Back in the present, Mackey stubbornly refuses to believe that Vera Donovan wanted to commit suicide, and his beliefs are further justified when he reveals to Dolores that Vera has left her her entire fortune. Mackey informs them that the will is eight years old, and although Dolores insists that she didn't know, Selena starts to believe her mother to be a psychopath. After a fierce argument, Selena storms out, leaving her mother to fend for herself.
Dolores finally decides that it is time to reveal the truth to Selena: she did in fact kill Joe, although indirectly, and it was a sympathetic Vera who suggested the plan to her (with the phrase, "An accident can be an unhappy woman's best friend."). As an eclipse was approaching, Dolores sent Selena away for the week to work at a hotel to raise money from the high number of tourists. Joe soon returned from a holiday, and as a "treat", Dolores bought him a bottle of whisky. As he was drinking, Dolores revealed that she knew about Joe stealing Selena's money, and withdrew it from the bank account to hide it somewhere in the garden. Dolores also managed to provoke Joe into accidentally revealing that he had been molesting Selena, and enraged, he vowed to beat her for telling Dolores when she returned. Dolores insulted Joe, and ran into the bushy garden, where she lured Joe into a trap she had set in the form of an old well covered by weak planks of wood. Joe fell into the well and died after hitting the stone bottom.
Selena hears the story on a tape left for her by Dolores, who had forseen her departure. While on the ferry, Selena has a vision of her childhood, and remembers her father molesting her and forcing her to massage his penis on a wharf while no one was looking. Realizing that her mother was innocent the whole time and was only protecting her from Joe, Selena rushes back to her mother, who is about to be incarcerated by Mackey. Selena tells the police the details of past events, although she does not reveal that Dolores killed Joe. Finally, she realizes that Mackey is perfectly aware of Dolores' innocence, and that the whole thing is merely based on a grudge he has carried with him for thirty years. Accepting Selena's story, Mackey finally lets Dolores go free.
Dolores and Selena make amends to one another on a wharf before Selena returns to Arizona. The film ends with Dolores preparing to start a new life with the fortune she has inherited from Vera.
[edit] Differences between the Book and the Movie
- In the book, Selena is one of three children. In the movie she is an only child.
- In the book, Joe is not killed by the fall into the well, rather Dolores kills him with a blow to the head as he tries to escape after falling into the well.
- In the book, Vera has two children, and their fate leads to a shocking revelation towards the end of the story. In the movie, Vera is childless.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Kathy Bates | Dolores Claiborne |
| Jennifer Jason Leigh | Selena St. George |
| Judy Parfitt | Vera Donovan |
| Christopher Plummer | Detective John Mackey |
| David Strathairn | Joe St. George |
| Eric Bogosian | Peter |
| John C. Reilly | Constable Frank Stamshaw |
| Ellen Muth | Young Selena |
[edit] See also
- Dolores Claiborne (Stephen King novel)
- Solar eclipses in fiction
- List of films portraying paedophilia or sexual abuse of minors
[edit] External links
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