Rating of
4/4
Awesome movie!! Great Cast!!
mdtinney - wrote on 08/01/09
Of all of Stephen King's stories made into a movie, Dolores Claiborne is one of my 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 death of Vera Donovan opens the movie to reveal flashbacks to the past. The unlikely bond of two very different women like Dolores and Vera is fascinating to watch over time. Vera is a difficult woman who expects everything to go her way. She is one of the most difficult employers too but somehow Dolores understands her ways. Despite their backgrounds, they become the closest of female friends. Vera says "Sometimes being a bitch is the only thing a woman has" is a classic line from the film. I love Kathy Bates and Judy Parfitt in this film. The director Taylor Hackford does an excellent job in depicting Maine's beauty in the fall. The solar eclipse is also inviting to see and the drama that occurs during it. King keeps getting better with his work. Bates' narrating over the action allows us to understand the character's harsh working conditions bestowed by Donovan. Plummer plays a district attorney bent on proving Claiborne's murderous ways in this film. The film allows the audience to determine how we view Dolores Claiborne, a simple Maine woman with a complicated life who made fateful decisions in a male dominated world. We leave asking ourselves what we would have done in that situation and that is what is makes it a great film. Not only that, we enjoy watching these actors and characters over and over again.
