Dolores Claiborne (1995)

Director:

Taylor Hackford

Writers (WGA):

Stephen King (book)
Tony Gilroy (screenplay)

Release Date:

24 March 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Sometimes, an accident can be an unhappy woman's best friend

Plot:

A big-city reporter travels to the small town where her mother has been arrested for the murder of an elderly woman that she works for as a maid.

Plot Keywords:

Reporter | Murder | Flashback | Maine | Well

Awards:

1 win & 6 nominations

Cast

Kathy Bates	...	Dolores Claiborne
Jennifer Jason Leigh	...	Selena St. George
Judy Parfitt	...	Vera Donovan
Christopher Plummer	...	Det. John Mackey
David Strathairn	...	Joe St. George
Eric Bogosian	...	Peter
John C. Reilly	...	Const. Frank Stamshaw
Ellen Muth	...	Young Selena
Bob Gunton	...	Mr. Pease
Roy Cooper	...	Magistrate
Wayne Robson	...	Sammy Marchant
Ruth Marshall	...	Secretary
Weldon Allen	...	Bartender
Tom Gallant	...	Searcher
Kelly Burnett	...	Jack Donovan

MPAA:

Rated R for language and domestic abuse.

Runtime:

132 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | Iceland:12 | USA:R (certificate #33558) | Philippines:R-18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | Germany:12 (bw) | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/16 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada

Company:

Castle Rock Entertainment

Trivia:

Castle Rock bought the rights to Stephen King's novel for $1.5 million.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: After the brief shot of Dolores turning over her glass on the tabletop and booze dripping out, it slowly dissolves into a shot of clouds, then a pan of the shoreline to reveal the St. George house. During that pan, a portable toilet is very visible. A company in Nova Scotia rents a model that is blue with a bright yellow roof - exactly what you see in the scene. That's a fairly distinctive color scheme, which arguably makes this a geographic goof as well.

Quotes:

Dolores Claiborne: [to Selena, who is frantically taking pills] How is that going to help?
Selena St. George: Because in ten minutes, I'm gonna be fine.
Dolores Claiborne: Selena...
Selena St. George: JUST GIVE ME TEN MINUTES!

Movie Connections:

References The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Soundtrack:

Happy Days Are Here Again

Kathy Bates Shines

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.