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Jesse Stone: Night
Passage (2006)
CBS Jan 15 09:00pm
Movies, 120 Mins.
(Rated NR) (Y)
Executive producers: Michael Brandman, Tom Selleck
Producer: Steven Brandman
Co-producer-director: Robert Harmon
Teleplay: Tom Epperson
Based on the novel by: Robert B. Parker
Director of photography: David Gribble
Production designer: David Chapman
Editor: Chris Peppe
Music: Jeff Beal
Costume designer: Betty Pecha Madden
Casting: Todd Thaler, Mary Jo Slater, Steve Brooksbank,
Tina
Gerussi Cast:
Jesse Stone: Tom Selleck
Cissy Hathaway: Stephanie March
Joe Genest: Stephen Baldwin
Hasty Hathaway: Saul Rubenik
Molly Crane: Viola Davis
Luther "Suitcase" Simpson: Kohl Sudduth
Abby Taylor: Polly Shannon
Lou Carson: Mike Starr
Carole Genest: Liisa Repo-Martel
Anthony D'Angelo: Vito Rezza
Cast: Tom Selleck, Stephen Baldwin, Stephanie March,
Saul Rubinek, Polly Shannon, Viola Davis, Vito Rezza,
Kohl Sudduth.
A former Los Angeles lawman becomes the new police chief
of a small fishing town that holds dirty secrets. Based
on the novel by Robert B. Parker.
Stone: Night Passage
By Erik Pedersen
Bottom line: Slow-paced telefilm feels like a bloated
episode of an average cop drama.
The same forlorn look is stuck on Tom Selleck's face all
the way through "Jesse Stone: Night Passage," and
there's a good reason. Why should he bother to change
expressions when there's nothing going on around him?
Maybe this prequel to last year's successful CBS
telefilm "Stone Cold" is simply trying to represent the
unhurried pace of life in a small town. But whatever its
intentions, "Night Passage" passes its two hours
entirely too slowly, with few breaks in the inaction and
an annoying inert climax.
Selleck stars as Jesse Stone, a soft-spoken and hard-drinkin'
cop who was fired from the LAPD homicide unit for being
loaded while on duty. The movie seems to want to be a
character study of this sullen big-city transplant, but
it's satisfied to merely present endless shots of him
pouring scotch or talking to his dog or just generally
brooding rather than dig into his true emotional state.
Stone takes a job as police chief of the sleepy seaside
burg of Paradise, Mass., where those who hire him assume
that his history of drunkenness will keep him from
prying into the town's dirty dealings. The local "big
secret" and bad guys are revealed to viewers early on,
but Stone initially seems more interested in pursuing
the fetching city attorney (Polly Shannon), one of the
much-younger women who basically hurl themselves at him.
Sure, everyone in this small town knows each other, but
no one seems to know anyone else's business. Local bank
lord Hasty Hathaway (Saul Rubinek) has been laundering
mob money for at least 15 years. His contact, Joe Genest
(Stephen Baldwin), is a spouse-beating lowlife who paid
cash for his house and whose wife is clueless as to what
he does for a living. Yet no one, especially the
local-yokel cops, seems suspicious of either. They all
know, however, that Genest is the latest to take up with
Hathaway's sleep-around wife (Stephanie March) -- all
but Hathaway himself, of course.
Soon after Stone takes the job, he has a run-in with
Genest, and the two become immediate enemies. Then the
town's former police chief (Mike Starr) turns up dead,
and the telefilm's slow pace slackens even further.
There really isn't that much police work involved in
cracking the case; Stone's one major sleuth job reveals
a bag-toting Genest -- unaware that Stone has been
tailing him in a conspicuous SUV -- meeting Hathaway on
the front steps of the bank in broad daylight. Nothing
suspicious there.
Director Robert Harmon gives Stone's sad-eyed hound dog
as much tube time as many of the human characters, the
languid expression mirroring that of his master. The dog
is an obviously allegorical representation of Stone
himself: an aging, tired-looking creature that is more
content to mope around than do much else. And it's only
when the dog is diagnosed as dying that chief of police
seems to realize it's time for action. "It's often the
kidneys that go first," the vet tells the booze-abusing
Stone. Later, when Stone gazes over at the dog's empty
bed, he decisively puts down his bottle of scotch before
pouring.
Tom Epperson's lolling script plays out like an episode
of an average cop series bloated to twice its length,
and most of the supporting characters are little more
than dialogue fodder. Most notable in "Night Passage"
are DP David Gribble's shots of the idyllic oceanside
community and the dark-hued loneliness of Stone's home
life.
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