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     Jesse Stone: Night Passage
2006  NR  DRAMA/TELEVISION  1h 29min
CAST— Tom Selleck, Saul Rubinek, Viola Davis
MUSIC— Jeff Beal  DIRECTOR— Robert Harmon  BASED ON— Night Passage (novel), by Robert B. Parker

     Robert B. Parker’s intriguing literary character Jesse Stone is brought to life in a fine telefilm. A perfectly cast Tom Selleck plays Stone, a California detective who took to the bottle when his marriage failed. After losing his job due to the drinking he sets his sights on a fresh start: the small hamlet of Paradise, Massachusetts hires him as their new police chief. But something doesn’t add up here. It’s pretty common knowledge that they’ve hired a booze hound as chief. In fact, town councilman Hasty Hathaway handpicked him. What’s unclear is why. “I wouldn’t have hired me”, Stone reflects. When Stone (who clearly sees his drinking for what it is) starts sniffing around for an answer he uncovers other goings on in this little burg, mostly involving Jo Genest, a restraining order-violating thug with a personal grudge against Stone. But surprisingly things always come back to the unassuming Hathaway. These mysteries are compounded by personal issues Stone must contend with, and all within his first days in the department. Selleck plays the laid back yet no nonsense Stone without a hitch, though the rest of the film may disappoint fans of the novel; many key elements of the book are dismissed, a fairly mundane (yet barely there) money laundering scheme in their place. This is OK for newcomers but series diehards may not be as generous.
OUR RATING— ** ½
FOLLOWED BY— Stone Cold (2005), Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise (2006), Jesse Stone: Sea Change (2007), Jesse Stone: Thin Ice (2009), Jesse Stone: No Remorse (2010),  Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost (2011), Jesse Stone: Benefit of the Doubt (2012), Jesse Stone: Lost in Paradise (2015)