Make It A Double! (formerly Box Office Alternatives) — A column that looks at what’s new in theaters and considers interesting pairings with existing films, based on thematic commonalities.
The new Robert DeNiro-starrer The Comedian gets a wide release this week. Directed by Taylor Hackford, the blacklisted script gives the veteran actor what looks to be a really colorful role as an aging stand-up comic who finds a resurgence in both his career and his personal life.
If everything goes right, The Comedian will be another testament to the great Hackford, who has made a career out of crafting a number of films which are deep in resonance and unquestionably worlds apart from one another. Not many can capture love on screen like An Officer and a Gentleman, pay tribute to one of the greatest musical influences with Ray, or coax Joe Pesci out of retirement to play a pimp in Love Ranch. However, the director’s greatest triumph as far as I’m concerned will always be found in the dark and harrowing adaptation of the Stephen King novel Dolores Claiborne.
Hackford directs Kathy Bates as the film’s titular character, the widowed caregiver of Vera Donovan (Judy Parfitt), the wealthiest woman on a small island off the coast of Maine. When Vera turns up dead with Dolores seen leaning over her with a marble rolling pin, she is immediately suspected of murdering her. The incident brings Dolores’s estranged daughter Selena (Jennifer Jason Leigh) back to town with the intent of ensuring her mother has proper legal representation before leaving. However, the impromptu visit forces the two women to come to terms with their damaged relationship, which stemmed from the untimely death of Dolores’s husband Joe (David Stratharin) many years before.
Dolores Claiborne is certainly a different sort of King than most fans were used to up until that time. There are no killer clowns or deadly fans here. Instead, the horror of the piece comes from the darkness of life itself. More specifically, it’s the desire of recognizing the darkness of the choices in front of you and the unexpected forces which guide a person to them. The role of choice in the story, as well as the how the choices of the past forever dictate the present, makes the film all the more unnerving and compelling in all its dark humanity. Though perhaps it’s ultimately the surprising desire and the will used to make them which comprise the real terror of Dolores Claiborne from the start, taking hold of the audience and never letting go, even after the film is over.
A number of moments point to this being not only a worthy King adaptation but also a dark character drama. The first is the instance when, in a flashback scene, Joe has hit Dolores with a log of firewood, causing her to remain shaken all throughout dinner, and even after. All of a sudden, she smashes a glass of milk against Joe’s head, causing him to bleed. “You can be as mean and as hurtful as you want,” she states as she drops an axe in his lap. “But this is the last time you will ever hit me. You do it again,” she says, “one of us is going to the bone yard.” Just as powerful is the scene in which Selena finds herself on a ferry recalling a moment from when she was 13 with her father, which is playing out in front of her. As the memory (hard to watch due to its brutal harshness) and its ensuing emotions take her over, the audience is quick to note the younger Selena’s (Ellen Muth) face in this instance, which represents the effects of her father’s actions on her and the moment she began to turn into the tortured woman she would eventually become.
It’s impossible to put into words how fantastic Bates is here. The actress (who reportedly inspired King to write the novel on which Dolores Claiborne is based) is able to channel the character’s vulnerability, as well as her grief and rage, in the scenes from the past. Meanwhile, the present day scenes wonderfully showcase Dolores as the hardened and tough-as-nails woman the world has forced her to become. Bates has the perfect scene partner in Leigh, who was just the right kind of actress to bring forth Selena’s frailties. Watching her simultaneously remember and battle her horrific past is the kind of acting challenge only someone like Leigh could tackle.
As for the men, Stratharin makes a perfect monster, conveying the right kind of evil without going over the top, while Christopher Plummer as the DA in charge of the case (who also led the investigation into Joe’s death and harbors a deep resentment towards Dolores for obvious reasons) plays his character as less of a villain but as someone rooted in his convictions who firmly believes he is performing justice.
Stephen King film adaptations were at the top of their game when Dolores Claiborne was released in 1996, which might have attributed to the film’s lack of box-office success in comparison to the likes of Misery. However, the majority of critics embraced the film as one of the year’s best, with many commending the bravery and depth of the movie’s screenplay as well as the performances of its leading ladies.
Even now, two decades on, the film’s legacy has been quiet, yet deeply felt. In the years since release, Dolores Claiborne has been transferred the stage, winning even more acclaim, while film theorists have considered the movie’s comments on feminism and repression worthy of a number critical interpretations. Dolores Claiborne can now certainly be praised for not only showing yet another layer to the work of both King and Hackford, but also for proving a telling example on both the dark horrors that exist in the human soul and (as evidenced by the slightly hopeful ending) the possibility of escaping them.
