Dolores Claiborne (1995) [R]

Featuring:
Kathy Bates, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Christopher Plummer

Written by:
Stephen King
Tony Gilroy

Directed by:
Taylor Hackford


Release Date:
March 24, 1995

Original Title:
Dolores Claiborne

Alternate Titles:
Dolores Claiborne - Stephen King

Genres:
Crime | Drama | Mystery

Production Companies:
Castle Rock Entertainment
Columbia Pictures

Production Countries:
United States of America

Ratings / Certifications:
AU: MA 15+  BE: 18  CH: 12  DE: 12  FR: U  GB: 18  HU: 18  IE: 18  KR: 18  NL: 12  PL: 18  PT: M/18  SE: 15  US: R 

Runtime: 132

Sometimes, an accident can be an unhappy woman's best friend.

Dolores Claiborne was accused of killing her abusive husband twenty years ago, but the court's findings were inconclusive and she was allowed to walk free. Now she has been accused of killing her employer, Vera Donovan, and this time there is a witness who can place her at the scene of the crime. Things look bad for Dolores when her daughter Selena, a successful Manhattan magazine writer, returns to cover the story.

Instead of heading to Arizona for her next big story in what has been her illustrious career in her relatively young life, New York based investigative journalist Selena St. George heads to her hometown on a small island just off the coast of Jonesport, Maine upon receiving a fax from an anonymous sender that her mother, Dolores Claiborne, is the only suspect in what looks to be the murder of her wealthy employer of twenty-three years, Vera Donovan. Dolores, who reassumed her maiden name following the death of Selena's father, Joe St. George, started working as one of Vera's domestics upon her moving permanently into what used to be the Donovans' summer house after Jack Donovan's passing, Dolores ultimately moving into the Donovan house full time as her caregiver when Vera required 'round the clock care. Dolores' employment, which was solely to save money for Selena's education, was despite miserly and overly particular Vera only paying a pittance. Selena has been estranged from Dolores for fifteen years, when Selena went away to college at Vassar on a full scholarship, on Selena's belief not only that her mother killed her father when she was thirteen - the death ultimately ruled accidental - but the trauma she endured at the hands of townsfolk who believed the same in their often anonymous taunts. Selena still suffers emotionally from the trauma, she resorting to various means of self-medication. Detective John Mackey, who led the investigation, believed the same, this case the only blemish in his otherwise perfect career. He, leading the investigation into Vera's death, has seemingly had it in for Dolores for eighteen years, and already has it in his mind that if she could kill Joe, she could just as easily have killed Vera, with a strong underlying motive beyond the seemingly open dislike the two had for each other in their mutual name calling. As Dolores and Selena are forced to move back into what has largely been the closed-up St. George house for however long Selena will be staying on the island, old memories come back to haunt both of them, with the truth behind what happened eighteen years ago and thus what happened with Vera buried deep within those memories in the house.

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Rankings and Honors

Dolores Claiborne (1995) on IMDb
Internet Movie Database 7.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes 86%
Metacritic 62/100
Awards Won: 1 win & 8 nominations

ADR Editor:
Thomas Whiting
Julia Evershade

ADR Mixer:
Doc Kane

Art Department Trainee:
Darlene Shiels

Art Direction:
Dan Yarhi

Assistant Editor:
Ray Neapolitan
Steven Ramirez
Vaune Kirby Frechette

Assistant Location Manager:
Andrew McInnes

Assistant Property Master:
Dean Eilertson

Assistant Set Decoration:
Patricia Larman

Assistant Sound Editor:
Courtenay Marvin
Oscar Mitt
Sonny Pettijohn

Boom Operator:
John Fundus

Camera Operator:
Freddie Cooper

Casting:
Nancy Klopper

Casting Associate:
Stacey Rosen

Color Timer:
Bob Kaiser

Costume Design:
Shay Cunliffe

Dialect Coach:
Elizabeth Himelstein

Director:
Taylor Hackford

Director of Photography:
Gabriel Beristain

Editor:
Mark Warner

First Assistant Art Direction:
Angela Murphy

First Assistant Camera:
Michael Hall
Tony Guerin

First Assistant Director:
Josh McLaglen

Foley Artist:
Hilda Hodges
Vanessa Theme Ament

Foley Editor:
Ed Callahan

Foley Mixer:
Marilyn Graf

Foley Recordist:
Roberta Alstadter

Gaffer:
Vojislav Mikulic

Greensman:
Stephanie Waldron

Hairstylist:
Réjean Goderre
Aldo Signoretti

Key Rigging Grip:
Matthew Pill

Location Manager:
Gary Swim
Debra Beers

Makeup Artist:
Micheline Trépanier

Music Consultant:
Arlene Fishbach

Music Editor:
Curt Sobel

Negative Cutter:
Mo Henry

Novel:
Stephen King

Original Music Composer:
Danny Elfman

Producer:
Taylor Hackford
Charles Mulvehill

Production Accountant:
K. Lenna Katich

Production Coordinator:
Gina Fowler

Production Design:
Bruno Rubeo

Production Manager:
Joseph Boccia

Production Sound Mixer:
Glen Gauthier

Property Master:
Grant Swain

Screenplay:
Tony Gilroy

Script Supervisor:
Shelley Crawford

Second Assistant Camera:
Ciarán Copelin

Second Second Assistant Director:
Kristie Sills

Set Decoration:
Steve Shewchuk

Sound Effects Editor:
Paul Timothy Carden
Curt Schulkey
Michael J. Benavente
Elliott Koretz
William Jacobs

Sound Re-Recording Mixer:
Richard Portman
Gary C. Bourgeois

Steadicam Operator:
Jeff Mart

Still Photographer:
John Clifford

Stunt Coordinator:
Gary Davis

Stunts:
Shelley Cook
Ron Van Hart
Sammy Thurman

Supervising Sound Editor:
David E. Stone

Third Assistant Director:
Lars P. Winther

Visual Effects:
Janek Sirrs

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