6. Dolores Claiborne (1995)
Dolores is a housekeeper who gets into a physical struggle with Vera - the woman she is supposed to be looking after. Vera falls down the stairs and Dolores frantically searches the kitchen. The post man finds her standing over Vera's body with a rolling pin, apparently intent upon killing her. Vera dies and the police strongly suspect Dolores but they do not charge her with anything. Dolores' daughter Selena comes to support her mother. She is a successful journalist, but she is also a depressed alcoholic. Everyone in the town thinks that Dolores killed Vera as they suspect Dolores killed her husband 20 years earlier. She is harassed by the town folk and a policeman - John Mackey is determined to put her away for good. And even her daughter Selena hasn't spoken to her mother for over a decade because she believes Dolores killed her father. In flashback, we can see that Joe - Dolores' hubby - was a violent alcoholic. Dolores took up a job with Vera to save money for their daughter's education but Joe stole it from the bank. In the present, Dolores says that Vera threw herself down the stairs. Mackey doesn't believe her as Vera had left her whole estate to Dolores. Dolores and Selena have an argument and Selena storms off, believing her mother is a two time murderess. Dolores confesses to Selena that she did kill her father, based on a plan by Vera, when she found out that Joe was molesting Selena. Selena vehemently denies this. We are treated to flashback scenes of Vera intimating she killed her own husband Jack to Dolores. After Joe comes home, Dolores confronts him with the fact of him stealing Selena's money and also molesting Selena. They get into a fight and Jack falls down a well and drowns. Selena listens to a taped confession of Dolores and in a flashback, she remembers giving her dad a hand job. Selena rushes back to Dolores and saves her from being indicted for murder. The case is dropped and mother and daughter are reconciled. A widely praised adaptation of the novel of the same name, Dolores Claiborne is another one of King's character driven masterpieces. It follows the book quite faithfully. The film is not a great work of art, and it doesn't pretend to be, but my goodness it can weave an interesting story. It grips the viewer from beginning to end, and it is not just the story that is exhilarating, it is the characters themselves. The characters are all excellently acted by the likes of Kathy Bates (as Dolores) and Jennifer Jason Leigh (as Selena). There is something compelling in the film when we watch the characters' emotional lives unfold. The film reveals different and surprising facets to the character's lives and personalities. Kathy Bates is amazing in her role as Dolores, I actually think it is a better performance than her role in Misery. This is because the role in Dolores Claiborne is not so one dimensional as Annie Wilkes in Misery. Annie is a psycho killer but Dolores is much more complicated. Another great film adaptation from a King novel