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.

If some archaeologist is digging around some 200 years from now and happens upon a copy of this film I only hope he's able to find a DVD player that will play it. Sea Change is that good! And unlike the usual junk passing for cinema these days this movie (and others in the series) displays a range of talent that will speak well of the 21st Century movie industry. Wonderful writing, wonderful directing, wonderful acting, wonderful sound track! But perhaps most impressive of all is the photography. In fact as a professional photographer specializing in landscape stills I was time and time again blown away by the powerful composition of the scenes, the originality of the camera work, the blending of subtle tone and color. As masterful piece of cinema-photography as I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing and memories of the most powerful shots shall inform my own work for years to come.

While some may find the pace plodding and grow impatient, real enjoyment follows for those who focus on the subtleties of character development through facial gestures, incremental relationship growth between characters, and the economical dialogue. All the Jesse Stone movies provide refreshing change from movies relying excessively on frenetic car chases, lengthy foot pursuits, protracted shoot-outs, high body counts, sixteen camera views of the same explosion, badly contrived conflict between partners, and tiring vocabulary abuse (profanity). Watch these in order because there are larger story threads that connect from movie to movie especially concerning the central characters. When you find yourself able to relax and have a story with depth gradually and carefully laid out before you, you'll be in the right frame of mind to enjoy this. As a peripheral character in Sea Change tells Jesse, "listen to Brahms."

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.

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.