Jesse Stone: Le bénéfice du doute

The stage curtains open ...

"I always knew I'd get my job back. Fate wouldn't do that to me."

The 8th film in the Jesse Stone crime/drama series starts out with a bang ... literally, when a police car explodes into flames to set the scene for the entire story. This was a conscientious effort to return to form with Jesse becoming the Police Chief again, and bringing back director Robert Harmon to manage things behind the camera. Though it was great to see Jesse wearing that hat again, things still didn't really feel the same anymore. Both Suit and Rose (having quite their jobs) were only on screen for a few minutes each. I would say that out of all the films in the series, this one felt the most bittersweet.

The new police chief and a re-hired DeAngelo are investigating a report of a bonfire on the outskirts of town when their car suddenly explodes into a large ball of flames, killing them both instantly. With nowhere else to turn, Councilman Hanson shows up at Jesse's house along with newly appointed councilman, Hasty Hathaway, asking for his help. He is given his job back as the Police Chief, so he gets to work. He arrives at the office to basically find it deserted, since he is the only active officer in Paradise. He investigates the murder of the former police chief, much like he did when he was first hired investigating the death of Lou. Ironcially enough, all roads seem to lead right back to Hasty.

I enjoyed this one. The pacing was actually a bit better in this one, and the story was well written (as always). But the "feel" of the earlier episodes just wasn't here. A decline I started to notice begining with "No Remorse". There were a couple of things I really did like about this one, however. Reggie has finally allowed himself to get close to Jesse, climbing up on the bed next to him, and then at the end, on a bench to sit next to Jesse in the police station. The other was the return of Suit to the police force in the very last scene.

I liked the angle of this story. The acting was good, as it usually is in these films. The cinematography was spot on, and the direction of Robert Harmon was a welcome return. With only one more movie to go, one gets the feeling that we've seen the last of Rose, which is sad. But, life goes on. I would recommend this movie. It is solid, worth the watch. As I mentioned at the outset, it was bittersweet. It was the same, but different.

This show starts out with a bang, literally. In a small, coastal town, two policemen die in a car bombing while out on a routine call. That certainly got my attention. Retired L.A. detective Jesse Stone is appointed to investigate. After that, the story wanders. We get to meet the various locals who live in the gloomy community with its rocky coast and gray weather, a place which has clearly seen better days. It's filled with cynical people one comes to expect in a movie like this. As expected, Stone (played well enough by Tom Sellink) asks questions of people, trying to find clues. As far as I could tell, but only finds little hints. In fact, the investigation doesn't go anywhere until the last half hour and the ending was very rushed. It also seems as if a sequel is being set up at the end.

Imagine that you and I could live our lives over again - or even a portion of them - and use the life lessons we have garnered, the hard way, to help ourselves and others. Police Chief Jesse Stone, portrayed by Tom Selleck, in the small Massachusetts town of Paradise, seizes such an opportunity. Divorce, alcoholism, murder, loyalty and betrayal, stupidity, false trust and false pride, dist integrating integrity, Stone has deposited lessons in some bank inside himself; and in these made-for-television modern morality plays, ironically, he is the right man in just the right place to help both himself and the small town.

Stone is no Ebenezer Scrooge. The ghosts that terrified him back in Los Angeles where he took to binge drinking and lost a high profile law enforcement job, are within his soul still, permanently goading and guiding him.

From 2005 through 2012, I watched, with increasing curiosity, involvement, and enthusiasm, as Tom Selleck and his cast maneuvered through five movies about Jesse Stone. Now, I have the distinct feeling that Selleck has assembled his favorite fellow actors to join in producing art and serious fun.

Thirty years ago, after "Magnum P.I.," Selleck is still refining and perfecting his acting skills. The actor who lost the Indiana Jones franchise to Harrison Ford, is selecting his vehicles carefully, systematically.

The dialog in the Stone movies is unusual, like the repartee one might overhear, by accident, between aged, battle-scarred warriors, or experienced EMT workers, in private, or out of ear shot, making ironic comments about life and love, death and destruction treating very serious subjects in a manner that sounds like light banter.

The Jesse Stone movies will not be for everyone's tastes. Its humor evolves out of people continually reminding themselves of how easily they could become corrupted or dead, the kind of humor that keeps characters and audiences on edge. Serious drama tipped just enough on edge to allow the audience to glimpse just a bit of Abbott and Costello or "Waiting for Gogot," reflecting on what well-intentioned but often self-deceiving creatures we human beings are.

Stone's drinking and womanizing somehow make him a sympathetic character where another actor might come across as a cad or pervert, a creep or monster. That is acting skill. This is Horation satire. It mocks and ridicules wrongs and weaknesses, but it is forgiving, unlike Juvenalian satire which is serious, grim, caustic and unforgiving, going straight for the jugular.

Selleck and cast treat even gruesome death with the dark humor MASH surgeons use to keep their sanity as they continually patch up wounded soldiers sending them back again and again to try to kill other human beings.

Some of the wittiest repartee since the 1980's "Equalizer" starred Edward Woodward and Robert Lansing, shows the verbal counter punching skills of Selleck and McHattie.

This movie may appeal to students of successful failures. It may even appeal to people who believe in atonement and forgiveness, reformation and redemption.

The movie manages to evoke an almost Vaudevillian humor out of events which in reality might feel like distilled sorrow or overwhelming grief.

Devane, shrink, ex-cop and almost ex-drinker, is a reflector for Stone's struggles and misadventures with both women and the bottle, and their interludes are played both for serious intent and droll comedy, as men, as lovers, as drinkers, and as human beings struggling to help themselves and others.

Aristotle said that a memorable character is (a) true to life (b) true to type and (c) true to self. The Stone movies turn the first two definitions on their heads a bit, but we know that it takes all kinds to make a world. Being true to oneself entails continual contemplation and application of the Serenity Prayer.

Not having been a Magnum PI fan, I've not watched many Tom Selleck movies other than his westerns. But one night after watching "Quigley Down Under" for the sixth or seventh time, I decided to watch one of the Jesse Stone series on Net Flix. This series is very engaging and once I started watching them I had to see them all and I even bought the DVDs. This most recent "Without a Doubt" is not one of the better ones. All of the flaws have been pointed out: believability -- where is the rest of the police force; incongruity of the plot; and his love life has definitely taken a dive. At least he has finally gotten rid of the ex-wife thing which made him seem pretty pathetic after the first 3 or 4 movies. Jesse is the classic brooding bad boy and Tom Selleck plays the role really well. His womanizing and his drinking are part of his charm, after all he is up front with all of the women he makes love to. Tom does need to lighten up on the hair color (better than in Bluebloods where he looks like he's been made up by a mortician). He is one of those men that has gotten more masculine and attractive as he has matured. I think the movie dialog is very similar to that in the books, but Jesse at times is too brooding and intense. Anyone who has his success with women should have a smile on his face once in a while. As a female fan, I'd wouldn't mind seeing how Jesse looks without his shirt on. This is a good series and I hope we have many more Jesse Stone movies to come.

This latest in the Jesse Stone series contains little suspense as the only new character introduced in the anthology turns out to be the perpetrator or at least one of them. Part of the problem is that you really would have to see the previous film to get into what is going on here.

In that previous film Tom Selleck who steps on a lot of toes in the small ocean town of Paradise, Massachusetts got fired as police chief and the snot nose son-in-law of one of the town councilmembers took his job. Well in this episode the new chief and another officer are killed in a most grisly fashion, a bomb thrown under their police car blows them up. You'd think it was Afghanistan.

In fact Selleck who is brought back as chief thinks it's not terrorism and so does Stephen McHattie from the Massachusetts State Police homicide squad. They think it's local and personal and it turns out it is.

One problem Selleck does have is that he IS the Paradise police because the others quit when he left and the two deceased were the previous force. He could have used a little help, but Kathy Baker and Kohl Sudduth just aren't ready to return.

These two hour Jesse Stone movies give Tom Selleck a chance to get into his deeply flawed alcoholic character. The enforced idleness in his absence as chief have put a lot of temptation to return to his drinking ways.

Fans of the series and of Selleck should like this film.