Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise

A couple of truly sad cases come across the desk of police chief Jesse Stone of Paradise, Massachusetts. The first involves the appearance of the body of a 14 year old girl who had been in the water for a few weeks. The second is an ongoing domestic dispute between an abusive husband and his battered wife.

Patient and methodical as always Tom Selleck gets the job done. The domestic couple is John Diehl and Debra Christofferson who steals acting honors here in a scene with Selleck where she talks sadly about how few options she has in life other than stay in this relationship with this dirtbag. One of Selleck's officers is nearly killed because of the volatility of the situation.

The second after long search because she was never reported missing turns out to be Mae Whitman whom we see in flashback. She was the school tramp for the past couple of years. Again someone you can weep for because had she lived she would have had a really horrible life with lots of issues. Of no help is her parents especially her father who actually kicked her out of the house. She was also a few weeks pregnant.

Going through her relationships is what eventually leads Selleck to a conclusion he was supposed to arrive at. But actually it's the knot that came loose that allowed her body to rise is what ultimately leads him to her murderer.

A fine film with one bad slice of humanity for Stone to deal with.

"Death in Paradise," though not without gun play, is fairly subdued. Chief Stone is perhaps more pensive than usual--and certainly more soulful. Jesse seems depressed and saddened by a wider culture that diminishes and sexualizes young girls, by a father who turns away his own daughters, and by a wife batterer--all in his little town of Paradise. To compound this, his own losses seem to come to the fore, making felt visits to the gruff, thought-provoking Dr. Dix mandatory.

Perhaps, these are what underpin Jesse's unusual dreams, visions, and personal incidentals that seem to put him in direct contact with the local murder victim, Billie Bishop, an upper-income youth who suddenly switches from brilliant student to drugs, indiscriminate sex, and dropout status. Hers is the tragic story of so many runaway girls. And Jesse has another connection to Billie: they arrived in Paradise, a very unlikely place for both, at about the same time, and both were over-qualified and undoubtedly viewed somewhat suspiciously by the locals.

So the childless, wife-less, career-less, college-less, mother-less Chief Stone will not rest until Billie's murderer/user is apprehended. That this man turns out to be two separate men, one a pederast and the other a cold killer, means not only that Stone's perfect cop-ly intuition is, in part, mistaken, but that his justice work for Billie is suddenly jeopardized. But wedded to his sympathetic stand with Billie, a solution must out. And in short order, the confounding knot from the crime scene turns out to be the knot that ties up his murder case. His case closed, Jesse is shown attending Billie Bishop's solitary grave, as he had done the same for his close woman friend, Abigail Taylor, in an opening scene. And at the fade out, Jesse is at the bedside of his comatose sidekick Luther (who has been shot by the wife batterer in the sub-plot) reading to him the bio of their baseball hero, Suitcase Simpson. A bluesy installment indeed, this "Death in Paradise."

Look, this isn't a great dramatic film. It won't have you on the edge of your seat. The script is clunky. The dialogue is stilted at times. It didn't transfer well from Robert Parker's novel to the screenplay. Tom is clearly still discovering who his character is.

Regardless of these things ... Tom Selleck is just a likeable guy. Women (and men) want to be with him. Guys want to be him. Since he is so well-liked and relatable, you'll find yourself ignoring flaws and going along for the ride.

This story doesn't rely on blood and guts here. The plot is actually driven by Tom's character's demons which is what really saves it.

Viola Davis could be in a toothpaste ad and still give an Oscar performance. That woman is a force.

This is a movie that's worth the time if all your looking for is a decent story with some decent acting that doesn't make you feel like completely wasted your time and you're tired of gratuitous violence, sex, and the deviant and dysfunctional.

I enjoyed watching the movie and have currently finished reading the next Jesse Stone book. Hooray for TV movies that are of the quality of big screen movies with well written, defined, true to life characters. Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone is my hero as he struggles with problems of work, alcohol, and loneliness as we all do. The story deals with the subject of child abuse and the resulting trauma that some people try to sweep under the rug or ignore rather than deal with which in this story results in a murder of an abused child. The other returning actors are great as the friends and co-workers who provide their own story lines interweaving with Selleck's.

This is the third in the Jesse Stone movie series and I thought it was the best. Selleck is just perfect as the flawed, but honorable main character. What makes this series so good is what others have written; the pacing of the films is thoughtful; the characters are adult and complex; it has plot and intelligence over car crashes and special effects though it has action and romance in it to be sure. You like Selleck's character instantly and his scenes with his other officers,the State Police Detective and the shrink he see's about his drinking, are all terrific.

In the special features on Stone Cold Selleck says people have a 'hunger' for this type of adult entertainment where plot and story are more important than rapid fire visuals--and that is so true. It's surprising how good this series is--it's way better than 95% of what's in the theaters. Tom Selleck in a really good cop movie or Pirates of the Caribbean part IV--it's no contest.