Jesse Stone: Benefit of the Doubt

I tried to watch Fail Safe first, but roughly five seconds in, as a George Clooney narrator introduced us to 'our correspondent for the evening, Walter Cronkite', my brain started screaming this was an ego fluffing project for Clooney and fuck that, sir. Out of the 360 it went.

Maybe that wasn't fair. It could have been a suspenseful thriller, but more likely it was going to be some mockumentary about how close we are to nuclear devastation. So very portentous and serious and all that jazz. I'm in some state of mind where I barely have patience for any sort of fiction right now, certainly none of that.

Anyway, I threw in Benefit of the Doubt because I figured it wouldn't take itself too seriously, and it was meaningless enough I could ignore it if I felt like it. My dad and Tom Selleck are really starting to resemble each other. Body shape, clothing choices, facial hair patterns. Selleck has more hair up top, and less grey, but he could be coloring it.

Old Jesse Stone got fired as police chief sometimes since the last one of these I watched with dad, but the new chief and his lone remaining officer get blown up investigating a call about a bonfire. With no options, the town council gives Jesse the job back. So this council is a lot like the one Roy Scheider had to deal with in Jaws: a bunch of backstabbing jackasses until they need something. Well, Jesse needs the job back too, since he's been drinking too much, and not talking to anyone. The first time we see him, Selleck looks bad. His eyes are red-rimmed throughout, but he looks that unhealthy grey color people get sometimes. Maybe that was just the cold, but if they were trying to make it look like losing the job took something vital from him, mission accomplished.

Anyway, this is supposed to be a state police investigation, but Jesse and the cop in charge are pals, so he gets pretty much all the info he wants, though he's like most detectives in these kinds of stories, in that he never treats that as a two-way street. I always wonder why the buddies in those cases keep helping. You know that Jesse (or whoever) is going to find out something important, then withhold it so they can investigate on their own, and that contrary to their supreme self-confidence, this will not work out perfectly (it didn't in this movie). So why cut them in? At a certain point, don't you say, "No, you don't get anything from me, it's my investigation. Come back when you're willing to share like a grown-up."

But Jesse's friend, despite being a pretty smart cop, is a remarkably trusting dope, so he doesn't do that, and Jesse noses around on his own. Mostly because he has no choice. Two members of the Paradise police force are dead, and the other (the ones Jesse liked and trusted) both quit. Which Jesse might have known if he bothered to keep in touch, rather than getting his brooding drink on in his island cabin. That was a development in the film I rather liked, Jesse coming back to find his trusted subordinates are gone, and failing to bring them back in part because their lives moved on while he was busy being self-pitying. I thought that was really how it was going to end, because Jesse at one point watches an old film called The Last Hurrah, which seemed a little on the nose, but you know how people are about having their characters interact with entertainment that's foreshadowing or parallels the actual story. I suppose there are lots of movies and TV shows where characters watch stuff that isn't meant to be significant, and we don't remember them for precisely that reason.

One thing that comes up a lot is that Jesse didn't like his replacement. It comes up, not because anyone ever actually accuses Jesse of the murder (although he made DeAngelo, the other officer's, life miserable), but because people just feel the need to mention it. Like they're surprised that Jesse would take back a job he really wanted if it meant investigating the death of his predecessor/replacement. And every time this is brought up, Jesse says, 'I don't think I ever said that,' only to have the person he's talking with insist he did. After the third or fourth time, what's the point of his denial? Sheer stubbornness? Was he really drunk when he said it, and legitimately doesn't remember? After a while, it grates. Jesse already knows they found a bunch of cash in the trunk of the exploded cop car, but wants that kept mum because he thinks cop deserve, well, look at the title. How are his personal feelings relevant?

There's one other bit that was, a little curious. Jesse goes to talk to local boxing promoter/crime lord Gino Fish. First he has to get past Gino's secretary, Amanda. Jesse asks her out, she sort of demurs, then he asks if she'll walk over to the door and punch him in. She's confused. I guess Jesse either knows the code or was expected, but Jesse explains he likes to watch her walk. And sure enough, when she walks to the door, the camera lingers on her butt. Well, she does have a very nice butt, so I can understand Jesse's interest. But initially, I thought he asked to walk over there and punch him. Like she would walk there, he'd follow, then she'd hit him, a staged fight for some reason. Maybe to keep her bosses happy, her not being friendly with the annoying cop. I thought I saw some goon still standing nearby, no doubt trying to observe so he could report back to da Boss. And once Jesse pretty blatantly checked her out, well that seemed like an attempt to give Amanda a reason to slug him. But no, he just wanted her to punch the code in on the keypad so he could watch her. Well, OK then, I guess.

Jesse does have a nice relationship with Thelma, who works as a car saleswoman by day, and sings at a club by night, because she likes to sing. He told her how much she'd helped him make it through these bad times, and you could tell she was touched. Jesse's not much for that sort of heartfelt sentiment. More about making nice small gestures that convey his affection, so that was sweet. I would advise him that, if he chooses to tail someone in the future, perhaps don't wear your ballcap with PPD on the front, especially when that person knows very well what you look like, and that you wear that cap. C'mon Jesse, at least wear a nondescript ball cap! Just pick a slightly larger size and you can wear it over the other one, take it off when you need to to.