Rent Dolores Claiborne (1995)

Total Eclipse of the Heart... - Dolores Claiborne review by Steve

Gloomy melodrama adapted from a bestseller by Stephen King, which eventually conveys a frisson of real-life horror. It stars Kathy Bates who won an Oscar in 1990 for Misery, based on another of the author's novels. This is technically really well made, so there was obviously some money on board, with the editing a main standout.

When a tough, gnarly housekeeper (Bates) is caught about to stave in her dead employer's skull with a rolling pin, she is charged with homicide and her estranged daughter (Jennifer Jason Leigh) drives back from New York to a fishing town in Maine to see what's up. The film is made up of flashbacks into their long ago heartbreaks.

The case is investigated by the cop (Christopher Plummer) who years earlier accused the mother of murdering her drunken, violent husband (David Strathairn). The revelation of the extent of the father's abuse is pretty harrowing and gives the film a big payoff. And we are reminded of the eternal burden and sorrow of women...

The complex timeline is well organised, and director Taylor Hackford gives the sombre melodrama some welcome polish. The main weaknesses are a folksy script and the idiotic inquest scene. It's the sort of picture which might have starred Bette Davis or Joan Crawford in the studio era, but obviously this is so much more explicit.