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In this latest Jesse Stone movie based on a novel by Robert B. Parker, a teenage girl's badly decomposed body is found in a lake wearing one shoe and tied to a concrete block. A class ring found at the scene points to a star athlete at an exclusive prep school where Dr. Lily Summers (Orla Brady) is the headmistress.
The Bishops may be the parents of the missing girl. They have one other daughter, Emily, who is known to be alive and well. The father is very demanding and cares what people think. Up until she went to the prep school, Billie was an A student, but something happened when she changed schools.
Chief Stone sees visions of the dead girl, both while sleeping and when he is awake, but this is pointless and never means anything.
Meanwhile, Chief Stone must deal with an abusive husband (John Diehl) whose wife won't leave because she's Catholic, she has kids, and no real job skills.
What makes this movie work is Selleck's usual fine performance of a character who is intelligent and determined yet stubborn and flawed. While most of the actors are good, another standout performance comes from William Devane as a therapist Stone's ex-wife recommends to help him stop drinking--a former cop who lost his job and his wife to his own alcohol problem. Another standout performance comes from the actor playing the Boston businessman with a bad reputation and a goon named Lovey.
Officer Crane (Viola Davis) recalls how her sister was in a coma before she died. Other cast members in the series include Vito Rezza as Officer D'Angelo, Kohl Sudduth as Officer 'Suitcase' Simpson and Stephen McHattie as Detective Healy of Boston.
The violence is minimal for most of the movie, though there is some blood in a couple of scenes. The language is stronger than one might normally hear on network TV, but not quite like 'NYPD Blue'.
I liked the traditional jazz music played at the fund-raiser hosted by author Norman Shaw (Gary Basaraba).
There will be more Jesse Stone movies, and I look forward to them.
score /10
vchimpanzee 10 May 2006
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1364360/ |
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3-4-2021 00:06:02