Dolores Claiborne
Warner Home Video
Drama
2.35:1/16x9/Dolby Digital 2.0
Region:1
Rated:R
English/French Dolby Digital 2.0
English/French Captions
131 Minutes
32 Chapters
The Film:
Coming from Stephen King's novel, this is a well-adapted story of psychological drama under a grey Maine sky.
This is another of King's non-supernatural dramas like "The Shawshank Redemption", and, like that film, this is a
fairly dark drama; also like "Shawshank", this is a fascinating film to watch because you're watching excellent acting
and characters that are fully drawn and developed.
The film is the story of Dolores Claiborne and the daughter, Selena, that she hasn't seen for 15 years. Selena is a
reporter in New York and one day, she recieves an article about a woman in Maine suspected of Murder. Upon further examination,
the woman is Selena's mother. She ventures back to her home, although she has an assignment that she'd rather be on,
to sort out the story. Director Taylor Hackford expertly brings the Maine of King's novel to life, the cold of winter and
the washed out greys and blues of the Winter horizon.
The audience has already seen the event that Dolores is accused of in the opening sequence, but we're shown it from an
angle that doesn't tell us the whole story. Did Dolores kill the old woman that she was taking care of?...And who was
responsible for the death of her husband, an angry drunk who died 15 years ago.
Those are the questions that the detective from the city is looking to answer; Christopher Plummer is excellent in the role, at
first only looking to work together, but slowly becoming colder and more agressive as the questions become buried
under layers of Claiborne family history and secrets.
Kathy Bates is perfection as Dolores Claiborne and she's well matched by Jennifer Jason Leigh, who I'm not a fan of, but
she is perfect for the role and matches the acting skills of Bates as Claiborne. Leigh is perfect as a young woman falling
apart with a life of alcohol and pills due to pain and anger from the past. Director Taylor Hackford does an excellent job
of moving back and forth between the present and the past, using different film stocks and an actress who plays Selena
as a young girl who looks quite like Leigh. There is one scene where Dolores calls to her young daughter in the front yard
that ends simply, but it's sucessful emotionally and with impact.
Excellent performances, great direction and a fantastic screenplay combine to make this an extremely watchable and moving
dramatic tale. It's a disturbing film, but powerfully acted and well done.
The Disc:
Picture: Powerful anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer that accurately captures the cold blues and greys of Taylor Hackford's cinematic
offering. The shadow detail is great, with all of the corners of the old house seemingly alive. Saturation and contrast are
excellent. The only problem that I viewed was a few short and small instances of shimmering in backgrounds. Images are extremely
sharp and detailed. The amazing scene of a solar eclipse is rendered excellently on disc. Some of the brighter flashbacks(like
scene 28) look especially brilliant.
Sound: A subtle mix that accurately brings Danny Elfman's haunting score to life(listen to an interesting story in the commentary
about what Elfman went through to get the score done). Dialogue is well produced and easy to listen to. Nothing terribly great,
but it serves its purpose well.
Menus: Animated main menu that is somewhat similar to what Warner did with the "City Of Angels" special edition, with scenes
morphing into one another.
Extras: It's fantastic that director Taylor Hackford is a supporter of DVD and it's hard to fault him, but I really didn't care
for his commentary on "Devil's Advocate" and I thought his commentary here was at times interesting, but what he keeps falling
back into is simply stating what happens on screen. Occasionally he goes into what it took to make this film, such as what it took
to put the eclipse scene together and it's too bad that there isn't more of that. I'm just not a fan of commentary where
the commentator is simply telling us what is onscreen. Hackford improves here from "Devil's Advocate", though, which is quite good
since this film is 4 years old. There is also a text sequence that describes the making of the eclipse scene. The trailer is not included.
Notes:This is a less expensive Warner title(Retail:$19.99, so some stores might sell as low as $13.99) and for that price,
this is an excellent value.
