Plot Problems? Sure. Love Jesse Stone anyway.

sharbrough

I like Jesse Stone and would watch one every week. I quibble about the story - but I love the visuals and the music. New England is a moody place.

As was suggested in other reviews, Paradise seems big enough to have more policemen. We see one, they ought to have more.

But my struggle with Benefit of the Doubt is a more basic plot question. What was gonna happen on the 24th? Let's review.

1. Sometime prior to 21-Apr, Butler made a cryptic entry on his desk calendar, 2AH10, which we later learn referred to Hasty and Pier 10. 2. On 18-April, Hasty serviced one of the Paradise patrol cars, and planted a bomb on it. 3. On 21-April, a fake call about some kids starting a fire was called in. Cash and drugs were placed in the trunk of the squad car with the bomb. This might have happened while it was being serviced, but we aren't told when. 4. Butler and D'Angelo are barbecued by the car bomb. Long before we had IED's, the mob had car bombs. It doesn't burn all of the money or drugs, just some of it. 5. When Stone tells Hasty about his theory that Hasty is the boss, Hasty reacts in haste, calling Art Gallery (that's a hoot) and saying that "the 24th won't work." The implication is that the thing on the 24th was a sniping murder of Jesse Stone.

So, are we to understand that Hasty was planning to blow up Butler, reinstate Jesse, and then shoot him too? And that Butler got wind of it before the movie started?

I guess Hasty planned to call in a fake report of a fire on the ship or something? Because when he moved it up, he didn't call Jesse out there or anything. If Jesse hadn't shown up, what would Art have done at the ship? What would Hasty have done? I can only imagine how slow the ending would have been if they had spent a whole afternoon out there and no one ever showed up.

Are we supposed to figure that Hasty was leading Jesse to the ambush? They didn't offer much hint or explanation of that.

As has been speculated elsewhere, why would Jesse have focused on the calendar clue in the first place? We are told it was a hunch. Fine, but no hunches about anything else?

I can't wait to see the next one. I'll try to pay better attention.

score 7/10

sharbrough 10 March 2015

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3199462/