JESSE STONE MOVIES
Starring Tom Selleck

Reviewed by Jeremy Silman
Watson Scale rating (0 being worst and 6 being perfect): 5.5

Having been made for TV, one would think that the Jesse Stone films (based on the novels by Robert B. Parker) would at best be adequate and at worst feature screenplays written by a six-year-old or a junior high school dropout (as many TV movies appear to be). As a result of this brain drain, I usually avoid any and all made for TV nightmares. Nevertheless, after watching the fantastic western QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER (1990), I became a Tom Selleck fan and thus decided to give the JESSE STONE films a try.

At the moment, there are four:

STONE COLD (2005)
JESSE STONE: NIGHT PASSAGE (2006)
JESSE STONE: DEATH IN PARADISE (2006)
JESSE STONE: SEA CHANGE (2007, not yet out on DVD)

I picked up the first three and was stunned to see films that were far better than most big budget efforts. The first thing that struck me was the quiet (no ludicrous gun battles or frenetic car chases). Next I was hit by the somber, deeply felt mood. Then the great cinematography caught my eye. What about the acting and writing? Top notch! I watched all three films without a pause.

The story centers on Jessie Stone (Selleck), an LA homicide detective that lost his job and marriage thanks to a love affair with the bottle. Trying to put his life back together again, he accepts an offer to become the sheriff of a small Massachusetts town called Paradise. Anyone that's been down and out will sympathize with Stone, and know just how lonely and depressing it is to have to start over again in the gutter. Here the "gutter" is a town that apparently doesn't need someone of his skills, a life without friends, and the need to prove himself to his underlings in the Paradise police station.

Tom Selleck ices this role by conveying paragraphs of dialogue and emotion with a simple look of his eyes. Still battling a desire to crawl into alcohol's womb, he quietly wins over those that don't initially take to him, turns the spines of beautiful women to jelly by being an old world manly sort of guy, and earns the respect of everyone in town by refusing to bow to politics or other's preconceptions. As a result, we get a flawed hero who possesses vast reservoirs of integrity, wisdom, and strength, but who never descends to the vomit-inducing political correctness that seems to appear in every strata of our society.

Of course, there wouldn't be much story without a murder or two, and it quickly becomes clear that Paradise is anything but. The way he goes about solving the crimes, while simultaneously facing his own inner demons, takes us back to films of yesteryear -- slow, exact, deep, emotionally compelling, and realistic.

If you live for special effects, explosions, campy dialogue, non-stop action, and shallow characters, don't watch these movies. If you enjoy a tight script, great acting, and the exploration of a man's journey from success to the pit and back again, then these films will give you enormous pleasure.