Jesse Stone: Benefit of the Doubt
Description
The chief is back on the job. When a shocking double
homicide rocks the quiet town of Paradise, Stone is forced back into action.
His police department nearly emptied of staff, he has to rely on his expert
intuition to sort through a maze of misleading clues as he attempts to unravel
the mysterious murders. Kathy Baker, Gloria Reuben, Robert Carradine, Saul
Rubinek and William Devane co-star in this thrilling installment, based upon
characters created in Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone books. Tom
Selleck’s trademark rumpled charisma continues to pay huge dividends in this
eighth adaptation of Robert Parker’s mystery series, focusing on the
beleaguered small-town police chief Jesse Stone. Picking up where the previous
installment Innocents Lost left off, the story begins with the forcibly
retired Stone spinning his wheels in the Massachusetts town of Paradise,
pursuing a tentative relationship with an aspiring singer (Gloria Reuben)
while trying to resist his old self-destructive tendencies. When his
replacement on the force meets an explosive end, however, Stone finds himself
back in the game. Selleck, who wrote the script with Michael Brandman, wears
this role like a just-right shoe, portraying his character’s stubbornness and
reluctant heroism in a fashion that does full justice to the late Parker’s
literary blueprint. His charm, combined with the presence of old pros such as
Saul Rubinek, Kathy Baker, and Stephen McHattie, make for an enjoyable
reminder of the pleasures of a long-running detective series, where the
resolution of the mystery isn’t half as important as the interactions between
the people tasked to solve it. On the debit side, the familiarity between the
characters can sometimes feel a little too comfortable, with a meandering
middle act that occasionally succumbs to a case of the cutes. (Even the
biggest dog lovers in the world may find their patience tried by the number of
reaction shots given to Jesse’s trusty pooch.) Fortunately, the whodunit
aspect finishes strong, with series director Robert Harmon (who also helmed
the splattery ’80s horror classic The Hitcher) wringing a surprising amount of
tension out of the cat-and-mouse climax set on an abandoned ship. By the time
Benefit of the Doubt comes to a close, it’s difficult not to wish for further
obstacles to be placed in Stone’s path, as soon as possible. There’s nothing
wrong with a formula, provided it’s a good one. –Andrew Wright
Features:
Product Details:
- Genre: TV, Drama
- Format: Widescreen, NTSC, Dolby, AC-3, Dubbed, Subtitled
- Contributor: Tom Selleck
- Language: English
- Number Of Discs: 1
- Aspect Ratio : 1.85:1
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : NR (Not Rated)
- Product Dimensions : 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 2.4 Ounces
- Item model number : 25350635
- Media Format : Dolby, AC-3, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
- Run time : 1 hour and 30 minutes
- Release date : August 7, 2012
- Actors : Tom Selleck
- Dubbed: : French