Stone Cold
2005 / Hallmark / Jesse Stone
Interestingly, the first Jesse Stone story made into a movie was, at the time, the last one released. Tom Selleck directed and starred in the movie, with Robert B. Parker's blessings. In fact, it's claimed in one interview that Parker cried at seeing some scenes because they were so well done.
The story begins with Jesse in his 4th year of being police captain of Paradise, Massachusetts on the northeastern coast of Massachusetts. He's already settled in with his staff, he's sleeping with the town DA, he's keeping his ex-wife at a comfortable distance. Life never stays calm for long in Jesse's life though. First, a dead man is found on the beach, with a dog. Jesse takes in the dog. Next, a woman is found dead. Jesse hones in on a couple as being the guilty pair. While he does a dance with them, the couple kills his DA girlfriend. In the end, of course, Jesse gets the pair.
Mixed in with this story is the tale of a young teen girl who was raped by 3 guys. Her mom doesn't want the town to know and wants to ignore the whole thing. Jesse takes on the case himself, with Molly's help. They track down the trio and get them to serve their sentence working around the office.
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Lisa Says: It's important to note that Tom Selleck says right out that this is not a verbatim copy of the book. He says that the plots are too dense to fit in 2 hours. So purists looking for an exact match just aren't going to find it.
That being said, I find that in this movie - like in the next one - they "whitewashed" the entire story. In the original story, Jesse is borderline psychotic. He talks, seriously, about killing off the guy his ex-wife is dating, because he is so jealous. He actually goes stalking the boyfriend with a gun. In the revised movie, Jesse is a sad guy whose girlfriend is killed, who tries to stop drinking and whose only contact with the ex-wife comes in the form of her trying to sleaze her way into an interview to boost her own ratings. That's not to say I disliked the movie at all. Bob and I both found it quite compelling and well done. The pacing was great - the slow, quiet pace of a Massachusetts coastal town. The interplay between Jesse and his staff, and then Jesse and the killers, was extremely well done. I really give kudos to the pair that played the killers, too. Right from the start, you could almost feel them radiate a sick fascination. The guy, especially, just struck me directly as a sleazy, deceptive person. It made the cat-and-mouse scenes very visceral. |
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