Jessie Stone - No Remorse

Human Remorses

No Remorse
USA 2010 Directed by Robert Harmon 
Sony Pictures TV Blu Ray Zone 1.

Warning: This one has some spoilers.

No Remorse, the sixth of the films presented in the Blu Ray set of Jesse Stone movies, is all set within Jesse Stone’s unpaid suspension from the job of Paradise police chief. It’s set both in Boston and Paradise and, typically for one of these Jesse Stone stories, it has at least two cases going on at the same time.

On the one hand we have Jesse (Tom Selleck) who, angered by his ex-wife’s calls, rips his land line out. He finally buys a cell phone but, it turns out, he can only use it when he’s out of his house in Paradise, because his home is in a no signal zone. Anyway, Boston homicide Captain Healy (Stephen McHattie), who is still recovering from the many gunshots he received at the beginning of the previous movie, Thin Ice (reviewed here), hires Jesse as a consultant on a double homicide with no apparent pattern or connection but, obviously done by the same killer. He says he needs his ‘coply intuition’ but, also, because the suspension is not sitting well with Jesse, who spends a lot of it on the end of a bottle of scotch. 

Meanwhile, Rose (Kathy Baker) and Suitcase (Kohl Sudduth) are trying to solve a case involving convenience stores which are robbed with the sales clerks beaten almost to death (or actually to death in the case of the one they are aware of in Paradise, as the story opens). However, it’s just the two of them on their own because the guy at the town council wants them and Jesse gone from the force... to make a clean sweep after the upcoming hearing for Jesse. So they need to solve the case... which they do with Jesse’s unofficial help, of course. 

So once again Selleck and his co-stars do wonders in this. Hasty Hathaway (Saul Rubinek) is out on parole but the actress playing his now ‘ex’ wife has been changed. She still wants to sleep with Jesse Stone, however. There’s a lot of character development in this one... or character building, if you will. We learn that Jesse loves his dog and is frightened of losing him. We see Rose grow closer to Jesse while she decides to divorce her husband. And we also see Jesse dating a nun... or at least having dinner with her, making good on his offer to take her out to dinner in the previous movie. And we hear the story of Jesse’s psychiatrist Dr. Dix (William Devane)... how and why he quit the police force to change his vocation (another grim tale). 

We also see the death of a regular character in the series... who we always know works for one of the questionable mobsters but who has a much bigger role this time around. Unlike the majority of how these Jesse Stone movies go, he doesn’t die at the hands of Jesse but, instead, kills himself where Jess can see him doing it, crossing the street when the green light shows and walking out into heavy traffic. 

All in all, this one is a good, solid episode and it even reunites Jesse with the young victim of an earlier installment. That being said, the ending of the episode is very much a cliffhanger... with Rose, Suitcase and eventually Jesse (and his dog), gathering for the hearing at the town council, where they all suspect they are going to get fired... roll credits. I guess we’ll find out what happened to them all in the next one.

So, yeah, No Remorse is another entertaining mix of mystery and police procedural, with Selleck once again very subtly playing Stone as an incredibly simple (though far from stupid) man who rolls with the punches as best he can and who follows his own moral code (which quite often has nothing to do with the legal system, it seems to me). And, once again, I’m very much looking forward to taking a peek at the next one as soon as possible. As the credits role, there’s a memorial statement to the writer Robert B. Parker (who wrote the original books and characters these films are inspired by), who died the year of this one’s release.

Sea Change

A Hasty Return

Sea Change
USA 2007 Directed by Robert Harmon 
Sony Pictures TV Blu Ray Zone 1

Warning: Many spoilers in this one.

Sea Change is the fourth of the Jesse Stone movies and, I have to say, it’s my least favourite in this nine movie box set so far. Not that it isn’t good... just not the best, I reckon. It’s also something of a transition episode in terms of the regular characters. Tom Selleck, of course, once again plays Jesse Stone, impeccably... but Viola Davis returns as Molly Crane for only one scene. When a lonely Jesse phones her in the middle of the night to ask how her pregnancy is going. So, his new police support person, is Kathy Baker as Rose Gamon. 

In this one, Jesse’s ex-wife puts a halt on their nightly phone calls as she is seeing someone else. So Stone slip slides back into alcoholism but, as his new psychiatrist (William Devane returning as Dr. Dix) tells him, he needs to keep busy if he wants to keep the drink away. Be that as it may, Paradise, Massachusets is a small town where not much crime has been happening of late. However, there is a reported rape by a young victim of an incident which took place on board one of the yachts on the annual Paradise boat race, which he half heartedly gives to Rose, partially to help get her back into field work but also because, he’s not sure he believes the girl. This subplot also involves the great Sean Young (from Blade Runner, reviewed here) as a boat race pleasure seeker. 

Meanwhile, he sees that there are three unsolved cases and so he takes the most important one, from some time in the 1990s, involving a huge bank robbery, which he goes at relentlessly. He goes to visit Hasty Hathaway (played by Saul Rubinek) who you may remember is in jail after the events of Stone’s first week or two on the job (and who hired Stone for the job of police chief in Paradise in the first place), as he realises his money laundering was probably involved in the robbery, as he ran the bank. 

About this time, Suitcase (played by Kohl Sudduth) finally wakes up from his coma after being shot in the head after the events of the previous movie in the series, Death In Paradise (reviewed here). But he’s a little different. He has no memory of being in hospital but he seems to have retained everything people told him or read to him while he was in his coma. He’s also suddenly found what Jesse once told him is ‘cop-ly intuition’ and, even though he’s not quite on active duty just yet, he works out what is really going on with the bank robbery case and gives Jesse the obvious lead he’s been missing. 

Of that, I have to say I figured out who did the bank job and just what had gone on way before anybody in the movie did. I just suspected it at first but when Jesse becomes romantically involved in one of the people who at first doesn’t appear to be that close to the case, I was pretty sure I knew what was going on. So that’s a shame because I’d have preferred not to have known until the reveal. 

Now, the rape case is interesting in this one because... and you could never get away with this now in the ‘me too’ climate... but it hinges on consent and basically takes the tact that, in this particular case, the so called victim has been fabricating aspects of the incident for her own gain. I’m glad that somebody was smart enough to portray this because it’s not always good to believe what you see on the surface. 

Now, I was expecting, hoping, that Sea Change would be an episode where Jesse didn’t actually have to kill anybody. I mean, all the while he’s being intimidated by the brother of the killer who Hasty shot to frame him for the intended murder of Jesse in his first case. There seems to be a peaceful resolution to this story but, just when you don’t expect it (so that’s good at least) the killer turns up in Stone’s home and nearly ends Jesse... who promptly puts a few bullets in him and, once again, adds to his phenomenal ‘small town’ body count. I’m wondering if we’ll get an episode where someone doesn’t have to die for a change but, hey, I’ve still got another five of these to watch and, yeah, although this one was a little disappointing, I’m still really enjoying them and look forward to what Jesse gets up to next. 

Death In Paradise

Paradise Lost

Death In Paradise
USA 2006 Directed by Robert Harmon 
Sony Pictures TV Blu Ray Zone 1

Warning: Some big spoilerage.

The third of the Jesse Stone TV movies, based on Robert B. Parker’s crime novels, is Death In Paradise. Once again we join the chief of police in Paradise, Massachusets as played, very thoughtfully and introvertedly, by Tom Selleck (an actor I’ve always liked but barely seen because he doesn’t usually star in the films I would want to see... it’s only because my dad loves these Jesse Stone films that I’m discovering them now*). 

This one seems to have a lot going on in it and starts off with the discovery of a corpse in water... which has only been there about three weeks but, that’s enough to make identification hard (it almost looks like a mummy). It turns out it’s the body of a thirteen year old girl and Jesse and his department have to find out who murdered her... although it takes a while to identify just who she is, at first. 

Meanwhile, there’s another sub plot involving a woman who is regularly abused by her husband whenever he drinks, in a domestic violence case. This one actually did not end up where I thought it would but, yeah, there are consequences to the team of regulars in the pursuit of this one. 

And talking about sub plots... two more things Jesse has to deal with is a) dating a local doctor from a college and b) trying to give up drinking by seeing a psychiatrist. I’m guessing the drinking stuff will take a few movies to sort out (and then I’m guessing a backslide for Jesse too) and, I don’t know if the woman he’s dating hangs over into anymore of the movies either... time will tell I guess. 

Here’s a thing though... of the two main cases which Jesse is dealing with in this story, the murder and the domestic violence... both trails end in death. In fact, Jesse either kills or gives rise to a kill in self defence, three people when all is said and done. So, yeah, although I enjoy Selleck playing the monosyllabic, often silent type of person, he does have his moments where he becomes a man of action, so to speak. I’m not sure that’s a good spin for the character and I’ll have to keep an eye on his body count in future, I think. 

Two more quick things. 

In a couple of flashback sequences, as Stone is trying to figure out how the girl got to be at the bottom of a lake, weighted down, we see some shots of her under water a little like the lady in the water in the second of Frank Sinatra’s Tony Rome films, Lady In Cement (without the nudity). And then, later in the episode, a ghostly vision of her appears to Jesse in his office, saying what Molly will say when she enters a few seconds later, to highlight to Stone that it’s an important clue and that he should follow it up. So this is interesting stuff here and I’m wondering if he’ll have any other ghostly visions as the film series continues. 

Once again, Selleck is surrounded by good actors including regulars (so far) Viola Davis as Molly Crane and Kohl Sudduth as Suitcase... both who work under him. Here’s another thing though... and this is the big spoiler here folks... I said one of the things Stone is working on has consequences later down the line. When the wife beater fires a shot off in the local supermarket, Stone is forced to shoot him dead (he fires twice in the end because the first shot doesn’t incapacitate the perpetrator) but shortly afterwards he discovers that the shot that went wild from the guy has hit Suit in the head. So for the rest of the episode, Suit is in a coma in a hospital bed and Jesse and Molly take turns to read to him, to try and spark some kind of response. And, as the story concludes, Jesse is still reading to the unconscious Suit before the credits roll. So I’m kind of on tenterhooks now to see if the character survives to come back for the next film in the series or not. I’m kind of hoping he will but, obviously, with him in a coma, they could string this one out for quite some time. 

I guess I’ll know soon enough because, that’s me done on the third of the Jesse Stone movies, Death In Paradise. I’m liking these a lot more than I thought I would and am looking forward to watching the next one soon. 

* I wrote this review about a year before he recently passed away.

Jesse Stone - Night Passage

 

The Stone Collector

Jesse Stone - Night Passage
USA 2006 Directed by Robert Harmon 
Sony Pictures TV Blu Ray Zone 1

So, although it’s the second of the nine (to date) Jesse Stone TV movies made, Night Passage is actually a prequel to the previous story (which had apparently been based on the fourth of Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone novels). Which throws up an anomaly of sorts because, although Polly Shannon is back as his girlfriend who got killed in Stone Cold (reviewed here), she starts up with him here but also temporarily finishes with him. But I don’t believe this actress is back for any of the other installments so, I’m guessing either the second and third books were not adapted later or, maybe the actress was just not available and she was either replaced or written out, is my guess. But at the moment, I don’t know how these two got back on track so... maybe I’ll never find out (well... I guess maybe I could read the books at some point but, since the writer’s various series’ are all a part of a shared world, I’d feel obligated to read everything he’s written and I already have too many books on hold). 

Anyway, Tom Selleck once again stars as Jesse Stone but, as I said, it’s a prequel so, we start with him and his dog making the long drive to Paradise, Massachusetts, fleeing his ex-wife and former police job, to go on an interview for a job as the police chief there. Which he gets but, his suspicions are instantly aroused because, he was a little drunk for the interview and he doesn’t understand why they hired him. It soon becomes clear, after the murder of the previous post owner, that Hasty Hathaway, the guy who practically runs the town and who hired him (played by Saul Rubinek) is involved with some dirty dealings and, quite possibly, just wanted a man who would look the other way and hide from life as the police chief. But this is not who Jesse is and he brings his own brand of hard work and justice to the town... naturally.

The tone is quite grim in places (there’s a heartbreaking scene with Jesse's dog, who has liver disease) and, again, Selleck plays Stone as someone of mostly few words and he does a lot of his acting with his face and expressions. These TV films obviously embrace what I like to think of as ‘interior cinema’, where the various characters (and by extension the actors portraying them) are allowed to wander around in silence with their thoughts. 

And, once again, Selleck is surrounded by a team of actors who are all very good and his character bounces off of them quite well. I mean, I liked who I was supposed to like and I hated the main villain so, yeah, everyone is doing their job really well. Especially a character played by Viola Davis, who I only know for her roles in the former incarnation of the DC cinematic universe... she makes a good support for Selleck’s cop here. Again, I don’t think she’s in that many so... I’m expecting more death in this series of movies before long. 

There’s also some nice cinematography. The director really knows his way around on these and there are some nice shots, such as the lead villain (played by Stephen Baldwin) sitting in his car stalking Jesse, the coffee he’s drinking perfectly reflected in each of the lenses of his sunglasses. Little things like that really go a long way and make me feel like I’m in safe hands with this series (I think this director helmed at least seven of these nine movies). 

Now, there is no real mystery in this again and I guess that’s just Parker’s style of writing these things. I mean, this is a hard boiled cop story rather than a whodunnit, for sure. You know who all the villains are pretty much right from the first ten minutes and it’s more a case of waiting to see how Jess catches onto the facts rather than trying to identify who the lead suspects are. It’s probably better this way as it makes them less predictable, for sure. And, yeah, okay... I really enjoyed Night Passage. My dad was right, I do like these and I’m looking forward to taking a look at the next one in the series soon.

Jesse Stone - Stone Cold

Two Birds

Jesse Stone - Stone Cold
USA 2005 Directed by Robert Harmon 
Sony Pictures TV Blu Ray Zone 1

Warning: Some spoilers.

Stone Cold is the first of the nine Jesse Stone TV movies made over the space of around about a decade, starring Tom Selleck in the title role and adapted from the books by Robert P. Parker. My dad has always liked these things when they have been randomly caught on television by him and so I bought him a Blu Ray set of the movies, Jesse Stone - The Complete Collection, for his birthday a couple of years ago. 

Now this is a first time watch for me and, while this is technically the first episode, the producers (and I think Selleck is one of them) have decided to go for the fourth book in the series first. Which means, the next one I’ll see, is actually a prequel to this one and, I’m guessing, gives the series some wild continuity issues... in much the same way that Saltzman and Broccoli gave themselves continuity issues when they decided to film Dr. No as the first of the James Bond books for the big screen. Because, I would guess that at least one of the regular characters who gets killed off here will presumably be back in the next episode. It’s also a mite problematic in that these books are set in the same ‘universe’, so to speak, as Parker’s Spenser books and share some of the same characters. Which means that the same characters here are not played by the same actors and actresses they are in the many Spenser adaptations. So, yeah, not seen any of those so I’m going to ignore it and not make comments about those issues here either. Let’s just get into it. 

So the majority of these movies are directed by Robert Harmon (who you may remember shot a popular movie called The Hitcher, with Rutger Hauer, many decades ago). And this first movie has Selleck’s Jesse Stone already set up as the police chief of Paradise in Massachusetts  (which is apparently a parody of a real place called Marblehead, for those of you who like your geography). And it’s pretty good actually... shot well while Selleck and pretty much most of the people in this do a really good job. Stone is a full on ‘laconic cop’ in the best vein of a 1940s film noir and he brings the glamour and know how of his former, failed version of the job in a big city, to the local police who have a murder on their hands. 

Now, this has two things going on. One is the rape of a girl in the local high school and the other is a string of motiveless serial killings. The two stories rub against each other but only come together in an unexpected way, fleetingly when one set of characters is used as bate, at the end of the story. But this is not a whodunnit and so, for instance, the crazy husband and wife serial killing team, who have no motive and just like doing what they’re doing, are known to the audience right from the start. As they kind of are to Jesse, who believes in his hunches... he just needs to find evidence or some other way of putting these two down. 

Perhaps because of the lack of whodunnit structure, the film does telegraph itself somewhat. Jesse has an ex-wife he has partially fled from (I’m guessing I’ll know all I want to know about his back story when I watch the next one) but he has a higher up in the legal profession (if I caught her job right) as a girlfriend and also sexual overtures from another legal professional (which I’m assuming will develop over the course of these movies). And, what can I say... about halfway through I said to my dad, “She’s not going to survive the movie, is she?’ and, no sooner were these words out of my lips when, maybe thirty seconds later, one of the key characters was killed with two gunshots to her chest. So, yeah, the film is nothing if not predictable but, I guess that’s more to do with Robert B. Parker’s original novel (assuming it’s a true adaptation) and less to do with the way the screenplay is written. 

That being said, the characters and performances are all gold here (including a turn from a much younger version of Viola Davis than I’ve seen before) and I really had a good time with this. The dialogue is great and I felt like I cared about a lot of the characters... which is half the trick, I guess. The camerawork and editing is good too, with a kind of slick feel (boosted somewhat by Jeff Beal’s score) and I was reminded a little of the kind of things Michael Mann was making in the 1980s, to be honest, in terms of the feel of this thing.

So, yeah, that’s me done on Jesse Stone - Stone Cold and I’m looking forward to watching the rest of these things with my dad... who’s pleased to be watching them in Blu Ray quality, I suspect. So will report back on the ‘prequel’ episode soon enough, I think.