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Dom Robinson reviews
Warner Bros.
Dolores Claiborne
œ15.99, Region 2 DVD
widescreen, Dolby Pro Logic
Tagline: “Clumsy King killer thriller”
Nearly twenty years ago, the eponymous female in the film escaped conviction for the murder of her abusive husband . Detective John Mackey (Christopher Plummer) is still smarting over his failure to lock her away, so when Dolores (Kathy Bates) is found standing over the dead body of Vera Donovan, the lady for whom she housesits, after the corpse has gone for a tumble down the stairs, things are not looking up for his haggard and insolent old crone.
Bates made a name for herself in an earlier Stephen King thriller, Misery, but while that crafted suspense and intrigue, this one plods along with the only stand-out performance being from flashback sequences of her evil late husband played by David Strathairn, who put her through understandable hell. The sultry Jennifer Jason Leigh, as their daughter Selena, now an investigative journalist and paying a visit after hearing of the latest incident, just scowls, mumbles and mopes her way through the two-hour running time.
One major disappointment is the lack of screen time given to Eric Bogosian as Leigh’s boss and part-time bed-fellow. So good in Oliver Stone’s compelling real life chat-show killer thriller Talk Radio, he’s never been able to capitalise upon it as I had expected.
The film is presented in the original 2.35:1 widescreen cinematic ratio and is anamorphic, but looks rather washed out most of the time and there are a number of scratches and blotches on the print, not to mention the occasional artifacts and a hazy look at times. The average bitrate is 6.61Mb/s, often just peaking over 8Mb/s.
Surprisingly, for a film that’s just five years old only a Pro Logic soundtrack appears to have been created. It’s atmospheric enough as the wind howls and the melancholic melodies tinkle away in the background but you’re always longing for the speakers to come to life.
For supplementary material, there’s not a great deal to go on, but at least we’re on a par with the Region 1 DVD. A feature-length audio commentary is included courtesy of director Taylor Hackford, in addition to an anamorphic widescreen trailer cropped to 16:9.
The Picture: ***
The Sound: **
Extras: *
The Movie: **
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2001.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.