Jesse Stone: L'empreinte du passé

Robert Parker, like novelist Georges Simenon, was a master of his craft. Both men knew how to say just enough, and no more, allowing the reader to fill in the blanks. Parker's books are really acts of collaboration between writer and reader. It is rare for a film to capture the spirit of the book it sprang from, and rarer still for the film to be faithful to the writer's method. The Jesse Stone films are the wonderful exception. They are true to the books, and faithful to Parker's lean, spare style. Less is always more, like a Japanese line drawing. These films are beautifully crafted little gems. High marks to all who had a hand in their production.

Selleck does not get enough credit for this series.

On the one hand this whole series can be dismissed as the efforts of yet one more "older" actor to keep stirring the pot, to stay in the game, and at the same time get to play in his favorite sandbox on the planet (Nova Scotia, standing in for Maine).

But if you dig deeper and consider the series as a whole what you find is remarkable control, and craftsmanship.

The same people appear in every movie, both in front of and behind the camera. Ignoring the regional Canadian accents, they are not bad.

Selleck is brilliant. Stone could be the best work of his career. He has trumped Clint Eastwood in his mastery of the two-word piece of dialog. He stands a fragile but unwavering force for law enforcement. There is minimal violence or action in these entries but they hold interest nonetheless.

And that damn dog with the stoic face steals every scene he is in.

In this latest installment of the Jesse Stone series, based on a novel by Robert B. Parker, the biggest crime problem for the police chief of Paradise is parking violations. It's a good thing, because dispatcher Rose is being trained to take over for Molly, whose pregnancy is high-risk. And Officer Simpson is in the hospital. And Chief Stone and D'Angelo don't get along.

Stone's ex has a new boyfriend, and she wants to discontinue her telephone conversations for a while. Stone still doesn't have his drinking problem completely under control, and the townspeople have become aware of it. With temptation quite strong, Stone turns to Dr. Dix.

To give him something interesting to do, Stone reopens a 15-year-old unsolved murder connected with a bank robbery in which the victim was Leeann's sister Rebecca. For years, Leeann has taken care of her mother, who had a stroke after her daughter's death.

But Stone should have waited, because he does get a challenging case. Cathleen Holton says she has been raped. Stone has reason to believe she is lying. Harrison Pendleton is rich, and he owns the schooner where the alleged incident took place. Sybil Martin looks good in a swimsuit and seems to know something. The town council would prefer that the case be kept quiet so tourists will not be discouraged from attending the Fall Regatta.

Several old cases also play a role in the movie.

As with the other movies, some people may find this boring. But Tom Selleck, William Devane and Kathy Baker have strong characters to work with and they give very good performances, so in my opinion the movie is interesting enough with minimal action. Violence is almost nonexistent until the final scenes, though I think the movie would have been fine without what happened at the end.

I think pretty much everyone does a good job here. And both main plot lines are just complicated enough, though neither is developed enough for a full movie. We never know which of the old cases will provide clues to the new ones, and sometimes we have no idea which case a certain event involves. This seems like two separate hour-long episodes, though in the real world police officers would be working on multiple cases.

I was happy with this movie, and I look forward to more of them.

Tom Sellewck, (Chief Jesse Stone) assumes the role as Police Chief in a small local town in Mass. and finds himself getting bored with talking to his ex-wife and drinking a entire bottle of scotch during the evening while his companion, the dog keeps him company and watches every move Jesse makes. Jesse gets himself involved with a Cold Case of a woman who was killed during a robbery in 1992 and finds out there was a great deal of money involved with this robbery and some big time mob bosses were laundering money. While this investigation is going on, Jesse solves a rape case that happened to a young girl on a schooner in the harbor. There are many twists and turns to this film and it will keep you guessing right to the very end of the film. Great entertaining film with a cast of great actors.

The Jesse Stone movies are definitely among the best of made-for-television movies out there. "Night Passage" and "Death in Paradise" were both wonderful mystery movies and "Sea Change" is right up there on top with them. Here, Police Chief Jesse Stone (Tom Selleck) is trying to solve two cases at once. Both of which are not connected to one another. The town councilmen say he should try to solve a rape case, his mind tells him he should try to solve a murder case that occurred in Paradise fifteen years ago.

Tom Selleck was born to play Jesse Stone. He has the overall weathered-down appearance for a cop who has gone through a lot of miseries and personal problems with life and continues to go through them. His voice and mannerism also has the laconic tone suitable for Jesse Stone that enhances the believability of his performance. Performances by the rest of the cast was very good and the show went to reintroduce some characters that had not been seen since the second movie "Night Passage".

Like the others before it, "Sea Change" is a powerful mystery-drama. It appropriately keeps us guessing along with Stone until the end and just as I wanted to happen, something occurred in the movie that was both expected and unexpected at the same time. I will not give any hints as to what does happen or when it happens, for I don't want to ruin the surprise for anybody who hasn't seen this amazing television movie.