*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS* The grown Selena....

Lots of movies and books are like that....but that doesn't mean it's a bad movie/book....I find it interesting :)

I saw the movie probably a decade or so before I read the book. Having loved the movie so much for the stellar performances, I was concerned about how the book would be. I found the book and the movie to both be equally good, and one of the few book-to-movie translations I've seen that work really well. I think the script did an awesome job of taking the mood and spirit of the book and translating it for the screen.

Taylor Hackford says on the dvd commentary that Stephen King responded very favorably to the film. Like I said, I think both are great, but Stephen King has to get a lot of credit for his ability to create a character like Dolores. I got a perfectly clear image of who Dolores was when reading the book, and it wasn't just me imagining Dolores to look like Kathy Bates -- The Dolores of the book was her own complete person. I think Kathy Bates did an excellent, excellent job of bringing that character out of imagination and into life on screen.

Adult Selena in the movie seems to play the role of not only adding another strong character to the film, but it serves to frame and kind of clarify the idea of Dolores truly being innocent. In the book (spoiler?) the money Dolores inherits is anonymously donated, and then by the end of the book anwyay we get the idea that she's not lying, but just saying she donated might not translate so well on film.

Having Selena around to help her mother, and simultaneously being forced to face her demons, including the ones she's buried, also help to make the story more real and also to show the relationship of mother and daughter. This is a film of women. Women are the backbone of it, and having Selena there strengthens that.