Great Characters: Dolores Claiborne (“Dolores Claiborne”)
I’ve been taking suggestions from the GITS readers in the Great Characters series. Judith Sears went above and beyond the call by not only emailing me a suggestion (Dolores Claiborne), she also provided her take on the character which I’ve included here [see below]. First some background on the movie.
Dolores Claiborne is a 1995 film, screenplay by Tony Gilroy, based on a book by Stephen King. The lead character is played by Kathy Bates: The IMDB plot summary:
Dolores Claiborne works as a maid for a wealthy woman in remote Maine. When she is indicted for the elderly woman’s murder, Dolores’ daughter Selena returns from New York, where she has become a big-shot reporter. In the course of working out the details of what has happened, as well as some shady questions from the past and Selina’s troubled childhood, many difficult truths are revealed about their family’s domestic strife. This is cleverly portrayed with present reality shot in cool blue tones blending seamlessly into flashbacks shot in vivid color. As small town justice relentlessly grinds forward, surprises lie in store for the viewers….
Here are Judith’s observations:
I happened to re-watch Dolores Claiborne the other night and thought — someone should nominate her for Scott’s Great Character series. She’s a vividly drawn working class woman, with her washerwoman hands and her provincial attitudes. She’s never had much — her husband drains the savings account she’s paid into for years and it amounts to just $3000; just about everything is taken from her, she’s pursued by the police, tormented by local hoodlums, estranged from the daughter that she’s done everything she can to save, but she fights on. She may not have much to live for that we can see, but she fights on.
One of the movie’s highlights is the repeated line, “Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman has to hold onto.” It’s first said by Dolores to Selena, her daughter, who’s angry at Dolores for provoking the detective who wants to put her away for murder. Later, Selena says the line back to Dolores when she’s decided she can’t help her mother and she’s going to leave.
Finally, we learn the true author of the line — Vera Donovan, Dolores’ wealthy employer, who says it to Dolores in a flashback where she is suggesting murder.