Excellent adaptation.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

"Dolores Claiborne" is an intriguing adaptation of Stephen King's fascinating novel, featuring a terrifying and thought-provoking account of a middle-aged woman's complex and tragedy-ridden life. Kathy Bates superbly portrays Dolores Claiborne, the main character whose marriage, work life, motherhood and subsequent years after the unfolding of the events depicted in the movie are the film's central frame. We see Kathy Bates as a young mother and maidservant for the difficult Vera Donovan, who is portrayed by the great Judy Parfitt. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Dolores' daughter Selena, a complex character with more facets than a first look would allow to notice. While John C. Reilly and Christopher Plummer play great supporting roles, it's David Strathairn who may be the most outstanding supporting actor in the movie, portraying a frightening version of Dolores' husband Joe.Stephen King's novel may well be one of my personal favorite books, so it was only with great expectations that I started watching Taylor Hackford's interpretation of the story. Hackford changed a lot about the time line and added scenes including further confrontations between Selena and Dolores, but none of those decisions affected the movie in a negative way. The film mainly works thanks to the amazing performance of Kathy Bates, one of the best actresses working nowadays who deserves to be given more serious stuff in the vein of "Misery", "Fried Green Tomatoes" or "Dolores Claiborne" to work with. The story itself may be a rather ordinary one, but Stephen King made it work thanks to the unusual style of writing and one of his most memorable and most interesting narrators, and Taylor Hackford made it work thanks to casting Kathy Bates in this complex role.It is my personal belief that "Dolores Claiborne" easily lives up to the reputation of another Stephen King classic starring Kathy Bates, "Misery". While the latter may be the more memorable movie, there is no doubt that both these movies (and novels) are incredibly well-written and turn a simply premise into an engaging and thrilling story. Even if you already know the plot from the beginning to the end - as you do by reading Stephen King's novel, where he establishes the main plot elements from the very beginning -, both the movie and the book will not stop being engaging until its very end, and in my opinion, that's what good storytelling is about. It may not be a masterpiece, but it is an underrated story more than deserving of your attention and your time.

I won't bother to repeat a summary of this flick as so many others have done so already. What I will tell you is not to be foolish by not seeing this movie. This is a film you must pay attention to. Close attention. The films shifts from past to present in the blink of an eye. You don't want to miss a second.The mere fact that this movie didn't make a clean sweep at the Academy Awards and walk with every Oscar is beyond me and probably the majority of the comments on IMDb. Stephen King's writing at its finest, the best possible dream casting, Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh gave monumental performances, I would say their career finest. But the Academy in their infinite wisdom chose to turn a blind eye to this masterpiece. Perhaps you can decide for yourself; I think this film was robbed of its true merits.

I'll skip the synopsis since most of the other reviews cover that.This movie was great. It really gets you sucked in and you can't wait to find out what happens next. Kathy Bates is GREAT as Dolores. All around great acting. I didn't really like the blue color tones, I think I'm smart enough to figure out which part are flashbacks, but it didn't bother me much.I thought a lot about this movie the next day. To me, that's the sign of a great movie. Don't think it's all drama, there is quite a bit of excitement and a little bit of mystery thrown in. (No car chases or shootouts though if that's what you like... :)) Loved it! 8 stars from me....

Dolores is accused of murder, therefore Selena visits her mother for the first time after 15 years. So the film reveals the underlying family problems and the murder process step by step, which merge into a great story. The movie is strong the whole time and hasn't got any noteworthy flaws, unfortunately it doesn't serve any extremely outstanding facets either, so it's „just" very good.Enjoyable for everyone, so go watch it if you're OK with older films.================================my IMDb-rating scale 10 over the top / 9 perfect / 8 must see / 7 extremely good / 6 very good / 5 good / 4 OK / 3 so-so / 2 bad / 1 don't watch it