Synopsis: Dark secrets, family torments, and two murders swirl around the stoic, hardened figure of Dolores Claiborne, a housekeeper accused of murdering her employer of 22 years. Then there was that timely accident that took Dolores's husband, Joe St. George, during the solar eclipse of 1975. Yet, with all the somber suffering that follows Dolores like a miasma of pain, none of it compares with the heartache of a relationship she has with her grown daughter, Selena. When Dolores is accused of murder for the second time, Selena heads home to find out the truth, unbeknowst of what lies in store and the detective who will stop at nothing, the second time around, of convicting her mother.

Cast:
Kathy Bates .... Dolores Claiborne
Jennifer Jason Leigh .... Selena St. George
Judy Parfitt .... Vera Donovan
Christopher Plummer .... Det. John Mackey
David Strathairn .... Joe St. George
Eric Bogosian .... Peter
John C. Reilly .... Const. Frank Stamshaw
Ellen Muth .... Young Selena
Bob Gunton .... Mr. Pease

Favorite Quotes:
• "Hey, Dee, lookie here." [spreads the split in his pants and moons her] "Eh? Haha! A big 'ol smiley moon. This is just for you! Wanna see the dark side?" - Joe St. George

• Dolores: "Go on! All I ask is that you do it quick! And don't let Selena see the mess when its over! You wanna run me down? You go right ahead. You can be as mean and hurtful as you want, but this is the last time you will ever hit me! You do it again, one of us is going to the bone yard."
Joe: "Well, make yourself useful woman! And bring me a towel for my head! I'm bleeding all over my goddamn shirt!"

• "Husbands die every day, Dolores. Why, one is probably dying right now while you're sitting here weeping! They die, and leave their wives their money. I should know, shouldn't I? Sometimes they're heading home from their mistress's apartment, and their breaks suddenly fail. An accident, Dolores, can be an unhappy woman's best friend." - Vera Donovan

• "Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman has to hang on to." - Vera Donovan

Notes:
• Dolores Claiborne is based off of the best-seller book by Stephen King.
• While filming a scene on the ferry between Dolores and Selena, co-star Jennifer Jason Leigh became seasick. A student from a local high school was pulled out of class to act as a stand-in.
• Ellen Muth, who played the young Selena, won an award for Best Supporting Actress at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 1995 for her work in the film.

Critical Praise & Commentary:
• "Did you see this man in 1995's Dolores Claiborne? David Strathairn has played the most vile and disgusting characters ever written. Hopefully--I've yet to meet the man--this does not reflect his real life personality but only the magnificent presence he conveys on screen.

"In Dominick and Eugene he was a wife beater and in L.A. Confidential he ran a shady escort service. Either Strathairn is one of the most believable and amazingly authentic actors of late or he carries secrets we have yet to reveal." -Pamela Harland, iF Magazine

• "The bulk of the picture takes Dolores' point of view, with frequent flashbacks to the summer of 1975, as the town prepares for a solar eclipse and Dolores recalls events leading up to the death of her abusive husband Joe (David Strathairn, as a spouse who is 180 degrees from the one he plays in Losing Isaiah)... Strathairn and young Muth also perform well--you'll hate him and feel her pain." -Chris Hicks, Desert News

• "The range of what is held back can extend from an aching tenderness that threatens to melt into a sobbing puddle to the violent red-eyed fury he unleashed in Dolores Claiborne, which found him [David Strathairn] delivering one of the scariest portrayals of a drunken wife-batterer ever etched on celluloid." -Stephen Holden, The New York Times

• "David Strathairn...plays the despicable husband to creepy perfection..." -Magill's Survey of Cinema

• "As mother and daughter try to deal with their troubled relationship, Detective John Mackey (Christopher Plummer, whose performance slowly spills into camp) resurrects the mysterious death of Dolores' husband (David Strathairn, simply great as a beer-guzzling, white-trash wife-beater)." -Pamela's Film and Entertainment Site

(David On His Role:)
• "Maybe it's a case of, 'He was a scoundrel in that one, he can be a scoundrel in this one.' I see these characters as catalysts. And I only choose to do them if they are an integral part of the plot and other characters' journeys. The abusive husband in Dolores Claiborne was a very difficult role to play and, in my opinion, not altogether successful. But I feel it was necessary for the other characters to have that character, who was pretty low." -David Strathairn, 2002

• "I'd done Dolores Claiborne and Dominick and Eugene--some rather unpleasant people and dangerous parts where you have to explore behavior that doesn't sit well with you after the fact. For the sake of the story, you take on those kinds of challenges. If that means doing, yet again, a questionable person who is sort of the underbelly and the seamy side, if it's important enough to do--if I like the story or connect with it enough and I'm given the chance to do it--then the part just is what it is." -David Strathairn, 2003

(Karen Moncrieff On David:)
• "I think he's an actor who's not afraid of playing characters that other people would say are unsympathetic. But he also has a tremendous amount of charisma and he infuses all of his characters with such humanity and sympathy that you can't help but understand them, even if they're as evil as the man he played in Dolores Claiborne." -Karen Moncrieff, director (Blue Car)

Related Links:
Hollywood Online Notes - Dolores Claiborne (off site)