Very good

SanteeFats

I really enjoy the Jesse Stone movies. Here is a man who became a drunk because of his cheating and now divorced wife. She cheated on him and he turned to booze as a solace. He gets a last chance job as police chief in a small New England town. In this particular movie he gets hired back as the chief after two officers are killed in an explosion. One is the son-in-law of the town council president, the other was the infamous and not very likable D'Angelo. The council president manipulated the firing of Jesse and the hiring of his son-in-law as the chief. It is seemingly poetic justice that the boy is dead and Jesse is back in charge. William Devane is back as Jesse's shrink. He is very good in this role. Rose and Suitcase have left the force because they just didn't like the new chief. He contacts Suitcase, who still has the weird sixth sense, on a fishing boat run by his father but Suitcase stays with his Dad on the boat. This is not what I expected. I thought Rose and Suitcase would both come back to the force. As the case widens more suspects come in to the scope of the investigation. Saul Rubinek is in the film as arestored city councilman after his release from prison. Now I thought his crime was a felony and would thus preclude him from holding office. Turns out Sal has been the driving force behind the drug trade in the area. William Saddler does an excellent job of playing the bottom feeding crime boss Gino Fish. Of course everything comes to a crescendo conclusion and Jesse solves the case to the chagrin of a few people. At the very end of the film Suitcase returns to the department. I sure hope there are more Jesse Stone movies in the offing.

score 8/10

SanteeFats 1 March 2014

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2971930/