Dolores Claiborne (1995)

Author: Old Mother Hubbard

“Dolores Claiborne” (1995)

“Sometimes you have to be a high riding bitch to survive. Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman has to hang on to. An accident can be an unhappy woman’s best friend.” – Vera Donovan.

There is no doubt that Kathy Bates was fabulous in “Misery” (1990). After all, “Misery” made Bates a world wide movie star. However, Bates’ absolute best performance in a film was in “Dolores Claiborne.” If I am ever able to finish my “Old Mother Hubbard’s 25 Movies You Need To See Before You Fucking Die!” list “Dolores Claiborne” will be going in before “Misery” (1990), before “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994) and before (dare I say) “The Shining” (1980). Yeah – it’s that fucking good.

Kathy Bates plays the starring role as Dolores Claiborne, an unhappy woman accused of killing her miserable boss Vera Donavan (Judy Parfitt). At first, the case seems pretty open and shut. Delores was also suspected in the death of her abusive husband Joe (David Strathairn) 14 years earlier and Detective John Mackey (Christopher Plummer) has it in for Delores because he is certain she murdered Joe (and he may be right). Selena (Jennifer Jason Leigh), who has her own issues, comes back to Maine from New York to find out what is going on with her mother Delores.

Bates has the New England accent and vernacular down pat and the script is magnificent. All the actors are superb, especially Judy Parfitt as Vera Donovan and Christopher Plummer as Detective John Mackey. “Dolores Claiborne” for some reason seems to get overlooked among Stephen King films. I’ve seen this one a bunch of times and it is just fantastic. 5 stars.