Jesse Stone: No Remorse

Jesse Stone: No Remorse
Written by	Tom Selleck Michael Brandman
Directed by	Robert Harmon
Starring	Tom Selleck Kathy Baker
Country of origin	USA
Language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Michael Brandman Steven J. Brandman Tom Selleck Cheryl R. Stein
Cinematography	Anthony B. Richmond
Running time	90 minutes
Chronology
Preceded by	Jesse Stone: Thin Ice
Followed by	Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost

Jesse Stone: No Remorse is the sixth film in the Jesse Stone film series aired on the CBS television network starring Tom Selleck. It is based on the character from the successful book series created by the late Robert B. Parker. Unlike the first four movies, the film is not based on one of the books.^[1]

Plot

The film begins with the murder of a young man as he opens his car door in a parking garage. The film then turns to catching us up with Jesse, who as it turns out hasn’t been up to much. After his suspension, Jesse Stone sinks into seclusion and alcoholism. Ordered not to communicate with his former subordinates while on suspension, no one is able to reach him. Eventually Rose becomes concerned and asks Jesse’s friend Captain Healy, the State Police Homicide Commander, to check in on him. Healy is still recovering from his gunshot wounds, and is supposed to be on medical leave, but as he informs Jesse – he’s taking his leave at his office. Healy finds Jesse looking disheveled, drunk, and despondent. Shortly after arriving, Jesse receives a phone call from Jenn, so Healy excuses himself. Jenn tells Jesse that she needs to talk to him because she and Elliot had a fight. Angered by this, Jesse tells Jenn that they shouldn’t speak anymore, then rips the phone out of the wall and throws it across the room. Later he buys a cell phone, but Rose has to help him program it. He only gives the number to her, and a few others, warning them not to give it to anyone else. It appears that Jesse and Rose are becoming close.

After a second murder in a parking garage, Healy asks Jesse to work as a private consultant to the Boston police department on the investigation. He does this partly to help his friend, but mostly because he needs Jesse’s experience. Jesse soon learns that the first victim had ties to Boston mob boss, Gino Fish. However when Jesse questions Fish about the man, Fish denies ever knowing him, as does his secretary Allen. After a third murder, Jesse questions Fish again, who then admits that he knew the first victim, but that he hadn’t seen him for a couple of days before the murder. Allen confirms this. Later Jesse takes Sister Mary John on a sort of date. At dinner he asks if Allen or Gino had been trying to get anymore young girls, but she hints to the fact that Allen and Gino are probably gay. He also discovers that the place, Milly’s, that the first victim was leaving when he was killed, was a gay bar, and a favorite destination of Allen and Gino’s. He suspects that Allen saw Gino and the first victim together there.

After having sometime to contemplate the revelation that Gino and Allen are gay, and probably in a relationship, he begins to suspect that Allen may have murdered the first victim out of jealousy. Having a master’s degree in Criminal Psychology, Allen would have known that the murder would eventually be connected to him, unless he could provide another explanation for it. So he then murdered the other two to hide his motive and make it look like a serial killer. Jesse confronts Gino, and later Allen with this information. Jesse calls Allen to have him meet him at Milly’s at 3pm to discuss matters further. Allen says he won’t be there and then vomits in his toilet. He then retrieves the murder weapon and throws it in the ocean. Later, while waiting for Allen at Milly’s, Jesse witnesses Allen’s murder in a hit and run. Jesse and Commander Healy later speculate that Gino ordered this fearing that Allen’s confession would lead people to discovering Gino was gay and destroy his underworld reputation.

Subplots

Another subplot involves an unknown assailant attacking convenience store clerks. He robs them and beats them. One of the clerks dies from her injuries, and Jesse later attends her funeral. While unofficially investigating this, he discovers that the same man is seen on both surveillance videos visiting the stores before the attacks. This leads Jesse to believe that two men are involved in the assaults. Jesse has become friends with Emily, the sister of the murder victim from Jesse Stone: Death In Paradise, who has dropped out of college, and is now working at a local convenience store. He shows the picture of the man to her, but she does not recognize him. Jesse gives her his cell phone number and tells her to call him if she sees the man. Later, she does and calls Jesse. Suitcase and Rose arrive just as the second man attacks her. Jesse then arrests the first man who is about to exit his car to help his friend.

Meanwhile, other characters from previous films make appearances. Jesse continues to see his shrink, Dix, who leads Jesse to the realization that he is afraid of abandonment. Dix sees this in Jesse’s relationship with his dog. Jesse was very close to his previous dog, Boomer, but with his new dog he has maintained a distance. He even insists that it isn’t his dog. This is the dog of the first victim from the film Stone Cold. He insists that he is only watching over him until he finds him a new home. Dix points out that Boomer died around the time that his wife left him, feeding his abandonment issues which have now manifested themselves in his distance from the new dog. Jesse is also approached again by Cissy, the former Mrs. Hathaway, who informs him very seductively that her offer for an uncomplicated sexual relationship still stands. Jesse once again refuses as he still maintains a friendship with Hasty Hathaway, who upon his parole from prison has opened a used car dealership, from which Jesse is borrowing a Jeep. Hathaway spent much of his fortune on his legal defense, and lost the rest to Cissy in the divorce, so Jesse suspects that he is financing his new venture with mob money, but does not pursue it. Hathaway also informs Jesse that the town council is planning on firing Jesse. He also tells him that the town council feels that he has corrupted Suitcase, and Rose, and they plan on firing them too and hiring all new personnel. Jesse tells Suitcase this, and later when Rose comes over to tell him that she is leaving her husband, he tells her too, but she has already fallen asleep and does not hear him. The film ends with Jesse, Suitcase, and Rose in the hearing with the town council awaiting their fate.

Cast

• Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone
• Kathy Baker as Deputy Rose Gammon
• Kohl Sudduth as Acting Chief Luther "Suitcase" Simpson
• Stephen McHattie as State Homicide Commander Healy
• William Devane as Dr. Dix (Jesse's psychiatrist)
• William Sadler as Gino Fish
• Saul Rubinek as Hasty Hathaway
• Mae Whitman as Emily Bishop
• Krista Allen as Cissy (Hathaway's ex-wife)

References

1. ^ Heldenfels, Rich (2010-08-26). "Oscars overlooked 'Road'". Akron Beacon-Journal. http://www.ohio.com/entertainment/mailbag/101540458.html. Retrieved 2010-09-10.