Claire Dolan
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Vincent D'Onofrio, Colm Meaney Katrin CartlidgeDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; French (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, Widescreen
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-02-21
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: New Yorker
Movie Reviews of Claire Dolan
Movie Review: Lodge Kerrigan's perspective on INVICTUS
Summary: 5 Stars
CLAIRE DOLAN is an exquisitely rendered exploration of anomie in modern American culture. Claire Dolan is a prostitute in debt to a pitiless pimp/businessman, Roland Cain. The viewer is not informed about the genesis of their relationship, nor how Claire's debt was incurred. One may infer that it is long standing, perhaps since Claire was only 12 years old, and that it is linked to her mother, whose death early in the film prompts Claire to bolt from Manhattan and attempt to establish herself in a Roland-free life. She discovers, at last, one thing she can trust: Roland's ability to find her and poison her existence.
Enough cannot be said about Katrin Cartlidge's remarkable performance in this film. She projects unbearably contained misery. Just as commanding is Colm Meany as Roland, surprisingly convincing as her falsely amiable nemesis. Rubbing up against them is a sad-eyed Vincent D'Onofrio, who provides an astute low-key beautifully wrought contribution as Claire's taxi driving boyfriend, Elton.
The world these people inhabit is a world that is unyielding in its suffocating coldness. No one offers sympathy, hope, warmth or succor. Claire knows that she has only herself to rely upon, but makes persistent heartbreaking tiny attempts to connect with others on a more human level.
She makes a comment to a mother about her baby's beauty, and the mother gathers her other child and leaves the playground. "I buried my mother today," Claire tells a stranger at a newspaper kiosk. The woman she confides in looks askance and hurries away. During her ill-fated attempt to flee from Roland, she gets a cat. When Roland finds Claire, he kills the cat. Her boyfriend, Elton, makes a determined but doomed attempt to understand her work, and therefore Claire, better, but his efforts lead to torqued helplessness and frustration. These feelings are compounded after he is nearly killed by a thief in his cab, and suffers a vicious, effective psychological and physical assault from Roland. When Claire comes home that night, seeking relief from her brutal existence, Elton embraces her welcomingly, but ends up echoing her treatment at the hands of Roland.
The menacing music, the framing of the shots and relentless capturing of glass and steel box images in Manhattan contribute to the enervating feeling of the story. Claire's dead face as she services the needs of her clients, her living quarters, dull muted clothing, especially her awful giant overcoat, reflect the sterility of her existence and the dearth of warmth in her interactions with everyone in her life.
"I have learnt silence from the talkative," wrote Kahlil Gibran, "toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers." CLAIRE DOLAN is a compelling, powerful teacher. It reverberates within the soul and, please God, sparks compassion in those lucky enough to see it.