Night Passage
2006 / Hallmark / Jesse Stone
The second movie in the Jesse Stone series is actually the very first book written in the series. It's interesting therefore to see the staff, locations, even his home and dog that were all "established" in the first movie, in sort of a flashback situation where Jesse is just barely settling in.
Jesse begins in Santa Monica California, having been fired as a homicide detective. He takes a long, slow drive across the country, and has his interview with the Paradise town hall crew while still hung over. It disturbs Jesse greatly that he's still accepted as police chief. He mentions it to pretty much everyone he talks with :)
Of course, things don't stay quiet for Jesse. He breaks up a domestic violence situation with Jo Geneste, and suddenly the ex police chief is found dead. Jesse suspects Jo. He hooks up with the DA for a while - and the Mayor's wife goes after him too. Soon the mayor has lured Jesse in to a shoot-out situation - shooting Jo and preparing to set Jesse up to die too. Of course Jesse had laid the trap and takes the mayor in.
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Lisa Says: Just as with the first movie, this one is meant to be true to the theme but not an exact replica of the book. And once again, it is incredibly whitewashed. The entire point of the original book was that the town was full of white supremacists, and that all the money was being used to fight off the blacks and other "undesireables". All of that is completely lost. Instead, it's solely about the mayor and Jo hording cash for greed.
I really enjoyed the slow pace of the story, how it let you absorb the landscapes, the characters involved. It was interesting to see how all the various people meet up with each other and have first reactions. On the other hand, it struck me as a bit creepy (ok a LOT creepy) that in two movies in a row Jesse gets hooked up with a barely teen girl and hangs around with her. There are no "boys needing a hand" in this one - and the only 3 boys in the other movie were gang rapists. This chief has a singular obsession, apparently. Also, Jesse is supposed to be 35 in this story. He's more like 55. I don't mind that *too* much. However, there is a recurring theme in both movies that the DA is way too young for him. That bugs me too - adults should be able to date who they want to. I imagine if she was older and he was younger that it would be commented on every 5 seconds, the way people are so obsessed with the "proper age match". In the book, the story ends with a massive cowboy style shootout. The movie ends it with a tiny meeting. It's a bit different. |
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Traveling in Jesse's Footprints |
Jesse Stone - Movie Locations
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