Word: selena
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Vera Donovan (Judy Parfitt), her long-time employer. Detective John Mackey (Christopher Plummer), who investigated Joe's death but couldn't pin it on her, returns to investigate the death of Vera. He is determined to nail Dolores for it. The film departs from the book when Dolores' daughter Selena (Jennifer Jason Leigh), seen only as a child in flashbacks in the novel, returns to Little Tall Island after fifteen years when she hears her mother is being investigated for murder...
...plot revolves around the complex relations surrounding Dolores, Selena and the death of Joe. Through a series of vibrantly photographed and seamlessly edited flashbacks, we watch a thirtyish Dolores deal with Joe's abuse and alcoholism, her new job as Vera's housekeeper and the erratic behavior of teen-aged Selena (over-acted by the newcomer Ellen Muth). Meanwhile, in the present, the pill-popping Selena tries to negotiate some sort of relationship with her mother while protecting her from the nasty detective. As the movie progress, we learn the vaguely shocking and not terribly original truth about the deaths...
...also a tough-minded, coarse-tongued woman who is supporting herself by taking care of Mrs. Donovan (Judy Parfitt), a rich-bitch invalid, and mourning her estrangement from Selena, her deeply disturbed daughter (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Precisely because of the absence of decent men in her life, Dolores is obliged to combine traditional masculine and feminine roles in one surprising, ultimately endearing persona...
...villain? Why, he's as broadly written (by Tony Gilroy) and played (by David Strathairn) as anyone who ever twirled a wickedly waxed moustache. A drunk and a wife beater, Joe St. George is Dolores' husband and Selena's father-so suspiciously sweet with the latter that we know long before we're told that he lusted unnaturally for her when she was a child and is the source of her repressed memories--and more than deserves the bad end Dolores arranges...
...Selena Fox, a nature priestess and director ofa Wisconsin animist group called the CircleSanctuary, began her talk with a prayer for theplanet Earth...