Review of Dolores Claiborne (1995) by Joey S — 17 Feb 2012

Dolores Claiborne (Bates), a strong-willed middle-aged woman who works as a domestic servant in a coastal town in Maine, is heard having an argument with her elderly, paralyzed employer Vera Donovan (Judy Parfitt), after which Vera falls down the stairs. Dolores ransacks the kitchen and is then caught by a mailman as she stands over Vera with a rolling pin, apparently intending to kill Vera. Vera dies and Dolores is charged with her murder.

Dolores' daughter, Selena St. George (Leigh), a successful but depressed and alcoholic journalist, arrives in town to support her mother. Dolores insists that she did not kill her wealthy employer, but she finds little sympathy, as the entire town believes she murdered her husband, Joe St. George (David Strathairn) almost 20 years earlier. Detective John Mackey (Christopher Plummer), the chief detective in her husband's murder case, is determined to put Dolores away for life.

Selena also believes that Dolores killed her father, and so has not spoken to her mother in over a decade. As the film develops, it is revealed that Joe was an abusive alcoholic, and that one night Dolores had threatened to kill him if he ever harmed her again. The film's flashbacks also reveal that Dolores started to suspect Joe of molesting Selena. Dolores went to work for Vera Donovan as a housemaid in order to raise enough money for her to take Selena and flee Joe's wrath, but the plan backfired when Joe started stealing the money from Selena's savings account.

Back in the present, Dolores says that Vera had thrown herself down the staircase and, tired of her disabled life, begged Dolores to put her out of her misery, something Mackey refuses to believe; he reveals that Vera has left her entire fortune to Dolores. Mackey informs them that the will is eight years old, which nearly convinces Selena that her mother is guilty. After a fierce argument, Selena storms out, leaving her mother to fend for herself.

Dolores finally decides that it is time to reveal the truth to Selena: She did in fact kill Joe, and it was actually Vera who suggested the plan to her. Dolores says that she had been pushed to the breaking point upon finding out that Joe had been molesting his own daughter, which Selena furiously denies.

In a flashback to a scene some 20 years before, Vera engages in her regular ritual of berating Dolores, who breaks down crying and confesses her troubled home life. An unusually sympathetic Vera implies that she killed her late husband Jack, and engineered it to look like an accident. Vera's confession forms a bond between the two women and allows Dolores to take control of her own situation and future.

As a total solar eclipse approaches, Dolores sends Selena away for the week to work at a hotel to raise money from the high number of tourists. Joe soon returns from a holiday, and as a treat, Dolores buys him a bottle of Scotch. After Joe gets drunk, Dolores reveals that she knows that Joe has been stealing from Selena's account and molesting his own daughter. Dolores intentionally insults Joe and lures him into falling down an old well, leaving him to die as he plunges to the stone bottom.

Selena hears the story on a tape left for her by Dolores, who had foreseen her departure. While on the ferry, Selena suddenly uncovers a long-repressed memory of her father molesting her, and realizes that Dolores had killed Joe to protect her. She rushes back to her mother, who is attending the coroner's inquest, in which Mackey makes a case she be sent to a grand jury in an attempt to indict her for murder. Selena tells the police they have no evidence and that despite an often-stormy relationship, Vera and Dolores loved each other. Knowing that he has no admissible evidence, Mackey reluctantly drops the case.

Dolores and Selena make amends on a wharf before Selena returns to New York. The film ends with Dolores preparing to start a new life with the fortune she has inherited from Vera.