Dolores Claiborne Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.5

Dolores Claiborne Blu-ray Movie Review

The Perks of Being a Bitch

Reviewed by Michael Reuben December 3, 2017

Dolores Claiborne is based on a novel by Stephen King, but it's not the kind of story typically associated with the popular writer. No supernatural forces are in evidence, no sci-fi devices are employed, and there's nary a monster in sight. The only ghosts in Dolores are those supplied by memory, and the only horror is the evil that men do, which turns out to be more than sufficiently horrifying.

King created the character of Dolores with actress Kathy Bates in mind, after her Oscar-winning turn in the screen adaptation of the author's Misery. Bates signed onto the film without hesitation, and her presence helped attract a stellar cast of acting talent, even in smaller roles. Screenwriter Tony Gilroy, future architect of the Bourne series, adapted King's first-person confessional novel using a time-shifting device so effective that King said he wished he'd thought of it himself. Directing responsibility fell to Taylor Hackford, who was looking to branch out from the male-centered dramas for which he was best known, like An Officer and a Gentleman and Against All Odds. Together, this eclectic crew created one of the least sentimental "women's pictures" ever made. It's also one of the Nineties' best films.

The title character of Dolores Claiborne (Bates) is a life-long resident of the fictional hamlet of Little Tall Island, Maine. Years of domestic labor have made Dolores as rough and hardened as the skin on her wrinkled hands. The term "flinty" doesn't begin to capture how tough she's become, weathering both the harsh Northeastern climate and the insults of her fellow townspeople, for which she gives as good as she gets. For many years, Dolores has been the live-in cook, housekeeper and, eventually, nurse to wealthy and demanding Vera Donovan (Judy Parfitt), one of the island's few year-round residents who isn't a native. Vera is now a bedridden invalid, and in the film's opening, we witness her death from a bone-crunching fall down the stairs.

To all appearances, Dolores has murdered her employer, which is what the lead detective on the case sets out to prove. Det. John Mackey (Christopher Plummer) arrives from the mainland, determined to put this case in order before he retires after a long and successful career in law enforcement. The detective and Dolores have history, and the tension between them is palpable, even when neither of them is speaking. ("I'm not making an enemy", she responds to someone who encourages her to be more diplomatic with the chief cop. "I'm keeping one.") The local constable, Frank Stamshaw (John C. Reilly), gamely tries to balance his deference to Mackey's authority against his loyalty to an island resident he's known all his life, but he's caught in an impossible position.

The accusations against Dolores bring her estranged daughter, Selena (Jennifer Jason Leigh), back to Little Tall Island for the first time in fifteen years. Selena is an investigative reporter, whose career appears to have stalled, if her conversations with her supercilious editor (Eric Bogosian) are any indication. She arrives at her childhood home brimming with anger and resentment, not to mention a purse-load of pharmaceuticals for anxiety, depression and who-knows-what-else. Mother and daughter have barely spoken since Selena left for college, and they growl at each other from opposite sides of a yawning gulf of recrimination and incomprehension. Their rift dates back to the death of Selena's father, Joe St. George (David Strathairn, seen in flashbacks in a courageous performance), who was abusive to his wife but doted on his daughter. It's emblematic of the women's conflict that Selena still uses her father's last name, while Dolores has reverted to her maiden name of Claiborne.

Selena's arrival triggers a cascade of recollections, and Dolores Claiborne gradually becomes a tormented memory play, even as it builds to a climactic inquest that, if Det. Mackey has his way, will result in Dolores' indictment for the murder of Vera Donovan. Director Hackford and his talented cinematographer, Gabriel Beristain (Blade II), used different film stocks to create distinct palettes for the past and present, so that events in two time periods remain visually distinct, even as they overlap and collide. The present is dominated by the chilly, windswept surfaces of Little Tall Island in winter, and the equally chilly distance between Dolores and her daughter. In the past, we see them as they once were, in lushly warm colors inhabiting a green and inviting landscape, while Dolores dutifully attempts to play the loving wife and mother and a teenage Selena is increasingly unsettled by the domestic turbulence that her parents can barely conceal. (Selena is played as a teenager by Ellen Muth, future star of Showtime's Dead Like Me, and it's a small but heartbreaking performance.) Past events reach their climax during a solar eclipse that brought observers to the island in record numbers. The event also provided the occasion when Dolores' life, and her relationship with her daughter, were permanently transformed.

Kathy Bates's performance in Dolores Claiborne is an even finer piece of work than her portrayal of the psychotic Annie Wilkes in Misery, because Dolores is a deeper and more demanding character. Bates has to play her in two radically distinct phases of Dolores' life, and she has to show the remnants of the old Dolores under the rough present-day exterior. Jennifer Jason Leigh has a different challenge as Selena, gradually garnering sympathy for a thoroughly unlikable character who, like her mother, has good reasons for being that way. She also gets the tricky task of delivering a climactic closing monologue that, in less talented hands, could easily drag, but the actress rises to the occasion. Still, despite these powerhouse performances, the scene-stealer of the movie is Judy Parfitt, a British stage actress who was unknown in the U.S. and was recommended by the director's wife, Helen Mirren. As Vera Donovan, a grande dame so finicky that she specifies the number of clothes pins to be used for each sheet hung outside to dry, Parfitt creates an indelible portrait of someone who has wrapped herself in ritual and formality as a defense against life's disappointments. In the critical sequence where Dolores breaks down and Vera surprises her (and us) with unexpected compassion, Parfitt delivers her lines with a quiet, clipped intensity—and she's terrifying.

Dolores Claiborne Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Dolores Claiborne was shot in anamorphic widescreen by cinematographer Gabriel Beristain (Blade II and Blade: Trinity), whose work here represents an intriguing combination of analog and digital techniques. If the film were shot today, the visual distinctions between past and present would be achieved with post-production digital grading, but Beristain created these separate looks in camera by alternating film stocks: Kodak for the present, Fuji for the past. Digital intermediates were not yet an option in 1995, but effects technology had progressed to the point where transitions between the two stocks could be managed seamlessly, and portions of each style could be combined within the same frame. The combination achieves the desired effect of making past and present appear to overlap and even coincide.

Director Taylor Hackford personally oversaw Dolores Claiborne's transfer to video for the film's 1998 DVD, and extensive notes were kept from those sessions. These notes were used by Warner's Motion Picture Imaging facility as a guide to color correction of a new 2K scan from an interpositive. As a result, the palette (or maybe I should say "palettes", plural) on the Warner Archive Collection's new 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is extremely precise, and the effect is exactly what Hackford and Beristain were after. In scenes set in the present, you can feel the cold of Little Tall Island, with its washed out blues, faded browns and skin tones both grayed and reddened by the rawness of the cold. By contrast, the lush reds, greens and earthtones of Dolores' past are even more striking, especially when one time period fades to the other or both occupy the same frame or, during a few key moments, the palettes appear to "blend" (I can't be more specific without spoilers). Blacks are solid, sharpness and detail are excellent and the film's grain pattern is fine and natural. The DVD prepared under Hackford's direction was impressive for its time, but this new Blu-ray rendition instantly distinguishes itself as the definitive presentation of Hackford's and Beristain's memorable stylistic experiments.

As per its usual practice, WAC has mastered Dolores Claiborne on Blu-ray with a high average bitrate, here 34.99 Mbps.

Dolores Claiborne Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Dolores Claiborne was released to theaters with a 5.1 sound mix, but for some reason (possibly space considerations) the 1998 DVD had only a stereo soundtrack. WAC has remedied that omission with this Blu-ray, which provides the film's original 5.1 mix, taken from the Dolby digital print master and encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA. The original mix is an improvement over the stereo, primarily in clarity and prioritization of dialogue, but the focus remains in front. The surrounds are present but sparingly used, even for environmental sounds like wind and waves. The approach isn't surprising for a film released in 1995, when the 5.1 format was still new and elaborate surround effects were limited to action films. Even Danny Elfman's mournful score retains its front-ward focus rather than expanding into the surround array. Still, WAC has faithfully reproduced the mix as intended.

Dolores Claiborne Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

WAC has ported over the director commentary from Warner's 1998 DVD of Dolores Claiborne. It has added the film's trailer, presented in 1080p. The DVD also contained a short extra consisting of text screens describing how the eclipse sequence was achieved, but that has not survived the journey to Blu-ray.

• Commentary with Director Taylor Hackford: Hackford's commentaries are always lively, but some are more informative than others. This is one of the better ones, as the director describes working with Stephen King and screenwriter Tony Gilroy, discusses casting, production design and cinematography, and recalls the experience of filming on location in Nova Scotia.



• Trailer (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:18): This trailer effectively previews the film's murder mystery without giving away any of its secrets. Note that some of the footage has been taken from an alternate staging of the climactic coroner's inquest, which Hackford reshot.

Dolores Claiborne Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's significant that Dolores Claiborne's husband considers himself superior to Dolores because of his family's position in the social pecking order of Little Tall Island. The Blu-ray of Dolores Claiborne appears at a moment of public reckoning with the abuse of women by men in positions of superior status or power, but the stories dominating the news all concern celebrities. Dolores Claiborne reminds us that such abuses routinely occur out of the spotlight, among people no one has heard of, where the victim's options for recourse are even narrower. It was Stephen King's inspired notion to place one of those victims at the center of a modern-day horror fable, which then supplied the foundation for a great American film. Highly recommended.