Review of Dolores Claiborne (1995) by Max W — 28 Jun 2007

Stephen King sure knows how to write crazy women. And Kathy Bates sure knows how to play them.

I read this book in probably ... 1999. Back when I read Stephen King all the time. I remember being pretty disturbed by it, and the image that sticks with me is one that was (probably wisely) not included in the movie. Isn't that always the way with his books? The most disturbing things are the silliest when they're realized in front of you. Probably the reason Stanley Kubrick left the moving hedge animals out of The Shining (the ones that were poorly but satisfyingly (?) added into the TV remake), and the reason the dog in the junkyard fridge that turns into a bunch of orange pom-poms, the freakiest image of any I can think of in any of his books, and the one that defined the point in that book when I knew I couldn't read him anymore, was left out of the TV version of It.

Anyway, that image in Dolores Claiborne is when Vera Donovan, the old bitch Dolores takes care of, starts hallucinating that the dust bunnies in the corner of her room come alive, mildewy fangs and all. Stupid, right? But it's one of the only things I remember about a book I read eight or so years ago.

The last Stephen King movie I saw was Pet Sematary, a movie that suffers from the fate of many of his movies -- freaky images that work in prose but suffer onscreen from lack of imagination. That movie was outright bad. Most of his movies are, sadly. They should be better. But this one works pretty well. No one has the same accent and Jennifer Jason Leigh can thank the writers and the character she plays for sucking, but look at that cast otherwise: John C. Reilly, Christopher Plummer, David Strathairn, Eric Bogosian ... pretty solid group. You don't usually get a pedigree like that in his movies. (see also: Shelley Duvall in The Shining, everyone in Pet Sematary).

It's elegantly directed by Taylor Hackford, and convincingly played by Kathy Bates, who sometimes seems as though her acting comes through more than the character. She's not as good as in Misery but Annie Wilkes was an amazing role, and Dolores Claiborne doesn't get to have as much fun.

Sooooo even though it's a downer, and it's hard to like anyone in it, it's still pretty worth it.