Dolores (1995)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Dolores |
| Original title | Dolores Claiborne |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1995 |
| length | 126 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Taylor Hackford |
| script |
Stephen King , Tony Gilroy |
| production | Taylor Hackford, Charles Mulvehill |
| music | Danny Elfman |
| camera | Gabriel Beristain |
| cut | Mark Warner |
| occupation | |
| |
Dolores is a 1995 American thriller directed by Taylor Hackford. It is a film adaptation of the 1993 novel by Stephen King .
action
The brisk and quick-witted Dolores Claiborne is accused of killing her rich and tyrannical, but ultimately also lonely, decrepit and bedridden employer Vera Donovan, after decades of housekeeping and later intensive care, whose body was found at the foot of the stairs in Donovan's house. After the alleged accidental death of her husband twenty years ago, also caused by a fall, the fall of the stairs is the second unnatural death in Dolores' environment.
The investigation is started by Detective John Mackey, who had also investigated the death of Dolores' husband Joe St. George twenty years earlier and then tried unsuccessfully to convict Dolores of the murder. Since he never found evidence against Dolores, despite his inner conviction that she was responsible for the death, he finally had to close his investigation. In the new death, which he considers to be another murder on a similar pattern, he wants to convict Dolores all the more and begins to investigate doggedly against her. He sees himself confirmed when a possible motive becomes known: Vera Donovan, a widowed member of the higher social class, has bequeathed all of her fortune to her simple housekeeper Dolores, with whom she was constantly fighting. Apparently, nobody is more surprised by this than Dolores.
When Dolores' grown daughter, Selena St. George, learns of the death of her mother's employer, she returns suspiciously to her hometown, an island off the American east coast. She, who blames her mother for her father's death, believes she can commit murder. Dolores wants nothing more than understanding from her daughter. Initially openly hostile to Dolores, Selena gradually opens up. The two estranged women approach each other again and begin to organize their long-repressed memories.
In flashbacks, the viewer learns more and more of Dolores' relationship with her daughter and her employer Vera. Together with the women, he comes to realize that Dolores and Vera's relationship was by no means just that of a wealthy employer and a financially dependent domestic help, but that the two women shared a kind of deep friendship. The employment relationship turned into a cohabitation that lasted for decades. Dolores is only now finding this out.
In further flashbacks, the viewer also learns about the events surrounding the death of Dolores' husband Joe St. George. Dolores, who was not very self-confident at the time, was beaten by her drinking husband. When he started sexually abusing their daughter Selena, she decided to flee the island with the child. When she wanted to collect all of Vera’s hard-earned savings from the bank for the future training of Selena, she had to find out that her husband knew about the secret account and had taken all the money for a long time.
Outwardly composed, she burst into tears during a party of Vera and told her everything. Vera recommended that she “solve” the problem (quote from Vera Donovan: “Nobody knows as well as I do: husbands sometimes die.”) And assured Dolores that she would fully cover her. Dolores then confronted her drunken husband - Vera had given her a bottle of whiskey - with the allegations and thus provoked a persecution, in the course of which Joe broke into a pit covered with rotten boards and fell into his death as intended. Vera gave Dolores an alibi.
Selena is only now realizing the abuse that she had completely repressed. She realizes the sacrifices her mother made to give her a better future and that her old conflicts were based on misunderstandings.
Finally, during an interrogation by Mackey in front of an examining magistrate, the viewer also learns of the events surrounding the death of Vera Donovan: In the absence of Dolores, the elderly Vera recognizes her situation as a helpless need for care and decides to fall down stairs to take. Shortly before reaching the stairs, Dolores tries to stop them, but fails. Vera survived the fall and begs Dolores to deliver her. So great is Dolores' compassion that she is excited to find a way to end Vera's suffering, but Vera dies before action can be taken.
Selena also takes part in the interrogation and confronts the initially triumphant police officer with his bitterness over the defeat twenty years ago and the resulting motivation to want to prove that Dolores had murdered Vera.
Mackey, too, now realizes that he has lost his way, and does not oppose the examining magistrate who suggests that the case be closed.
Reviews
James Berardinelli praised the "well-portrayed" characters of Dolores and Selena on ReelViews . He also praised the renderings of Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh and the “subtle” special effects.
Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times of March 24, 1995 that he was surprised how “affecting” the film had on him. The film would largely be a mother-daughter relationship film that would not have "false sentimentality" and would largely be shaped by Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
The Lexicon of International Films wrote: “A film adaptation of a Stephen King novel that dispenses with external shock effects and concentrates entirely on the psychology of the characters. Staged in the style of large entertainment cinemas, superbly photographed and vividly played. "
Awards
Kathy Bates , Jennifer Jason Leigh and the soundtrack composer Danny Elfman were nominated for the 1996 Saturn Award . Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh were nominated for the Chlotrudis Award in 1996. The film was nominated for the 1996 Edgar Allan Poe Award . Ellen Muth won a prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 1995 .
backgrounds
In the novel, Joe St. George is killed in the early 1960s, in the film this event takes place in 1975. The production company paid 1.5 million for the film rights to the novel dollars .
Web links
- Dolores in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Dolores in the online film database
- Dolores atrotten tomatoes(English)
- Dolores in the German dubbing file
Individual evidence
- ^ Review by James Berardinelli
- ^ Review by Roger Ebert
- ↑ Dolores. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .