mfrost71w The Jesse Stone movies shouldn't work; there's no pace at all in them, but, somehow, they do work. Stone admits to alcoholism but he should really be doing something about his caffeine intake. Stone spends all the day drinking coffee staring into nothingness over water, drinking coffee in his car staring into nothingness, drinking coffee with his psychiatrist while monosyllabically discussing nothing very much. He spends the nights drinking whiskey while staring into nothingness over water, drinking whiskey staring into nothingness inside his house or drinking whiskey while monosyllabically chatting on the phone with his ex-wife. If you took out these moments of nothingness, the films would be about 15 minutes long. Yet, for all that, the films have a charm and a pathos. It is nearly aways about to rain in Stone's New England (but rarely does) to give great skies over the landscapes as well as contributing to the melancholia. A tinkling, melancholic but sweet piano theme plays throughout the films constantly, only ceasing when Stone is in his house (drinking whiskey and staring into nothingness) and he puts tinkling, melancholic but sweet Brahms piano music on his stereo. The only thing more depressed than Stone in the films is his found dog, who's loyal but emotionally distant and often gives Stone the cold shoulder. Stone solves his crimes by staring into nothingness and asking a few desultory questions - usually of Hasty, an ex-banker that tried to kill him but professes his liking of Stone or of Gino Fish a ruthless gangster who tried to kill him but kind of likes Stone. He kind of stumbles into solving the crimes. Despite all this, the Jesse Stone films have something about them and are a cut above your usual made-for-TV films. I for one look forward to them being on TV, despite the fact I can predict what will happen for most of the film. A curiosity well worth the time

Robert J. Maxwell I kind of enjoyed this although it meandered all over the place and its characters were as lugubrious as the weather of the Canadian coast where the film was shot. It's extraordinary how little laughter is to be found in this sullen setting. Oh, there's sarcasm. Some of the characters trade wisecracks, but nobody laughs at them. By my count, there was one laugh. Or, rather, a brief, maniacal snort from a totally deranged serial killer, a woman, sounding like Natalie Wood's nervous snort. Nobody -- and I'm really thinking hard here -- nobody even SMILES except the two lunatics and, as I say, only ONE of them laughs.The film weaves together into a slightly uneasy plaid three unrelated stories. First, there is the serial killer business. Jane Adams is the female partner of this murdering yuppie couple and she's great. She has these wide and unblinking eyes -- not like a deer caught in the headlights but more like the headlights themselves. And she's always mincing around in these expensive slips. One of them is chocolate colored. I never even knew they MADE chocolate-colored slips in Singapore. When Tom Selleck, as the local police chief, first visits them as part of an innocent inquiry after the first body is found, the couple are amiable and sympathetic. So Selleck immediately leaps to the conclusion that they "did it." Credo quia absurdum.Second, there has been a gang bang involving a 16-year-old high school girl who refuses at first to squeal on her attackers because they threaten to release naked pictures of her to the press. The three high-school jocks who raped her are real sleazebags too. The most brutish of them is caught by a short, black policewoman smoking some grass in the boy's room. He blows smoke in her face, makes some contemptuous remarks, and brusquely brushes her aside, in return for which she maces him and puts him away. The young girl finally agrees to testify and the criminals suffer.Third, there is the underdeveloped relationship between Tom Selleck and the defense counsel for the rapists, Mimi Rogers. Their first meeting is hostile and lasts about twenty seconds. On their second meeting, a few nights later, Rogers calls on Selleck at his apartment, tells him she wants to get him into bed, hikes up her skirt and sits athwart his thighs. Then she gets up and leaves, saying, "Call me sometime. I'll get dressed up." Now, this may strike an ordinary viewer as improbable, but actually it may be quite common. It happens to me all the time.The narrative wanders around, gloomy, slow, and unfocused. Yet I enjoyed it because it's interesting to see Tom Selleck suppress his "Magnum, P.I." persona. Laconic, you know. Given to replies like, "yes" and "no." He's an alcoholic. The reason we know this is that several people, including Selleck, say so. We never actually see him drunk. And when he decides to quit drinking, there is no change in his dour personality.But then there's something fascinating about serial killers, even fictional ones. They've been done to death in feature films, but that preposterous quality remains. We can understand why a person might want to murder his or her spouse or friend. They are the people whom we've put into a position to hurt us. But a total stranger? These two lunatics make tapes of their victims before shooting them, and they choose them almost at random -- "He looks nice," says Jane Adams about Selleck before they try offing him. The killers are complete blanks here. They have no backgrounds and no discernible motives. (Selleck tells his subordinate to check every detail of their background but nothing comes of it. No results, and no LACK of results, is even brought up again.) Overall, what a comment on human nature -- and climate.

ctnegative This movie reminded me of a Miles Davis CD cover, Blue Moods. Everything on the screen is blue: the weather, the sea, the rain, and the the main actor's state of mind.The story is simple, yet realistic. No special effects, not one of those "video-game" movies with nothing to say, but a sensible and reasonable plot.A fallen from grace L.A. detective, "exiled" from the big city due to past problems, tries to make a living as a small town police officer. He must find a way to deal with local, mysterious crimes while putting his life together, and keeping his moral code despite of an always present sense of loss.It's a picture of real life, ladies and gentlemen, not good or bad, just as it is. May be a peasant theme for some, but for me it felt like an oasis on Hollywood's present cultural desert.

peteza My wife and I rented the DVD and were pleasantly surprised by this film. Tom Selleck is awesome as Jesse Stone, a flawed yet brilliant police chief with a great sense of humour. The production quality of the DVD is great-I thought this was a theatrical release. I missed the other two films that have been made since Stone Cold (Night Passage and Death in Paradise) and am hoping they will be rebroadcast or also released on DVD. Jesse Stone is destined to become a classic character as iconic as that other guy, Magnum P.I. Here's hoping there's a TV series in the works, because this has the makings of a great one. Rent it, you won't be disappointed!