Jesse Stone: Benefit of the Doubt (2012)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Admirable film.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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.

what a stupid dialog! why repeated it all the time? why repeat another stupid sentence of dialog like "i never said so". like the author, robert p. parker and his novels, the whole movie series was following the pace and tone of the novels, slow, pretentious, and gloomy. but one thing i have to point out: the premise of this series has a major flaw: you think that the city council of paradise would be so desperate and short of choice to hire a drunken cop fired by the lapd to be the chief of police? the movie location chose somewhere in the northeast and shot the series in wintry and wet seasons, but this new episode has stupidly arranged a scene of the motel owner/manager watering the lawn in april? what a pretentious and stupid scene. the whole series is nothing but a sponge full of water, soaked to the extreme with slow sound track, moody song, gloomy wet wintry scenes on and on but at the same time, drink after drink, and then with lot of meaningless macro shots of jesse stone's dumb dog. hey, you can't keep using these kinda crap on and on, again and again: 'because i'm the police chief.", "i never said so." or 'what you're looking at (you damn dog)?" and this episode, well, the paradise police chief playing a one man job, holding the fort of the paradise police dept, playing the detective and murder investigation jobs and well, a solo highway patrolman and drinking liquors and coffee all the time. a senior lost his job, still own the house on the beach without worrying the mortgage payment and property tax, got lot of money to spend on his binge drinking, yappi coffee and $180.00 one hour session of brain/mind search. what a stupid and absurd scenario!

I have to say i disagree about most comments : this is a VERY good movie. It is to be seen in continuation as a series. We follow the lives of the characters : Suitcase, Rose, Hasty, Thelma, Dr. Dix(the shrink)... They are all important in Jesse's life. The benefit of doubt is in fact also for Jesse to prove for himself, that's the fine twist. He progresses psychologically in this instalment more than many of the other movies we could see, being stuck in his sorrows... Even the dog, Reggie improves his relation with Jesse(is it a spoiler???) to enforce his progression... Don't look at these movies as fast paced action flicks. There a lot of them around. BUT, good reflexive, intelligent, deep, meditative movie about a -yes- archetypal detective : lonely, divorced, alcoholic, sometimes violent(he often kills instead of arresting the culprit)...- such a good a series is very rare to find. THOSE a little jewels. Good music, superb Nova Scotia landscapes, and a good cop intrigue. GO ON, please, JESSE, we follow you .....to PARADISE!!!!!!!!!!

Paradise Police Chief "Skipper" Butler and Officer D'Angelo are investigating a fire at "The Point". But when they get there, it appears to be a false alarm.Or is it?Two people are dead, and be warned--their bodies look like something out of a horror movie.The state arson investigators won't tell the town council anything. Town council members Hanson and Hasty show up at Stone's remote house--his phone is disconnected--to offer him his job back. Stone and the state investigator Healy are friends, so maybe he will have better luck. Healy tells Stone what he needs to know and advises him to leave the investigating to the state cops. Since when has that ever stopped Stone? His next two actions are illegal and provide two of the film's best comic moments, the other being Hasty's bow-tie.Stone suspects the murders were the result of Butler being corrupt (Wait: why will Butler let Stone take over his job, much less get away with investigating him? There's a very good reason). But he faces a number of obstacles. Molly quit. Rose quit and took her kids to her mother's in Toledo. Suitcase is working on his father's boat where he claims to be happy, but he's not convincing. Stone has no cell reception at his house. How will this man get anything done? Believe me, he will.Stone hasn't talked to his ex-wife Jen since he lost his job, and he's drinking again; his dog seems to disapprove. He continues to visit Dr. Dix, and he is dating Thelma, who works at Hasty's car dealership and sings standards in a club. Stone also goes out with the pretty but tough Amanda, Gino Fish's secretary, but just for information.A third person dies, and while it looks like suicide, Stone doesn't believe it.The mystery has just enough twists, and the conclusion is exciting.This is a movie that can be watched by those new to Jesse Stone. Unlike some of the others, this is a straight mystery which doesn't deviate into long philosophical scenes that some might find boring. And Stone's character history is explained for those who might not know it, but this is not really necessary for a newcomer to the series. Tom Selleck does his usual good job--just remember, this is NOT "Blue Bloods" (which I've never seen, but commercials tell me enough). Stone is flawed in many ways but basically decent.The other leading actors also do a good job. I wish Kathy Baker had had a bigger role, but for whatever reason she didn't have a lot of lines. Suitcase was also missed.It's worth seeing, even more so than some of the recent entries in the series.