Jesse Stone: Sea Change

Jesse Stone: Sea Change
Directed by	Robert Harmon
Written by	Ronni Kern
Starring	Tom Selleck Kathy Baker
Music by	Stewart Copeland
Cinematography	Rene Ohashy
Editing by	Roberto Silvi
Production company	Blue Ridge Motion Pictures
Country	United States
Language	English
Release date	2007
Running time	90 minutes
Preceded by	Jesse Stone: Death In Paradise
Followed by	Jesse Stone: Thin Ice

Jesse Stone: Sea Change is the fourth film in the Jesse Stone film series aired on the CBS television network. It stars Tom Selleck, Kathy Baker, and Sean Young. It is based on the character created by Robert B. Parker from the successful book series. Selleck received an Emmy nominaiton for his performance in the movie.

Plot summary

The film starts with Paradise unusually quiet and the boredom leading Jesse to drink more. Suitcase Simpson is still in a coma from wounds he received in Jesse Stone: Death In Paradise, and although he emerges from the coma later in the film, he is not himself, even referring to Jesse as Lou occasionally. Molly has left the force to have children, and Jesse’s ex calls him at work one morning to tell him not to call that night. She is apparently back in L.A. and has begun seeing someone who finds it strange that the two still talk every evening. While discussing this with his shrink, Jesse determines that these are the reasons he is drinking more, and also admits that although he doesn’t drink as much when he’s involved in a case, work has been slow lately. His shrink advises that he find some way to occupy his time, so he has Rose (the police dispatcher that replaced Molly in the film series) pull up their cold cases. He chooses a case from 1992 in which female bank teller, Rebecca Lewis, was killed after being taken hostage in a robbery. The body was found buried, and Jesse goes to the site and begins digging for clues, literally. The dig reveals the gunman’s clothes were buried under the body. Upon examination of the clothes it appears that there are two bullet holes in them.

Jesse begins investigating by talking to Hasty Hathaway. Knowing that Hasty was involved in money laundering through that bank, he asks him if the $24,000 official loss was what was really stolen from the bank. Hasty reveals that it in fact was not. The real number was closer to $2 million dollars of Boston mobster Gino Fish’s money. Hasty calls Gino to tell him that Jesse is on the case. Interested in getting his money back, Gino has Terrance Genest, brother to Jojo Genest whom Hasty killed in Jesse Stone: Night Passage, begin following Jesse.

As part of the investigation Jesse questions Rebecca’s sister Leeann. She reveals that she moved out to Massachusetts after Rebecca’s murder to care for their ailing mother. Jesse and Leeann begin seeing each other. Jesse also questions the security guard who had accidentally shot and killed Rebecca. The guard is convinced that he shot the robber and not Rebecca, and his mistake led him to ten years of alcoholism. During a background investigation on Leeann, instigated by Suitcase Simpson, based on him having a "feeling", it is revealed that Leeann was reported missing by her landlady the day of the robbery. Jesse deduces that the woman claiming to be Leeann was actually Rebecca.

Jesse goes and questions Rebecca and she admits that when she had discovered how much money was actually moving through the bank, she convinced Leeann to pose as a bank robber and take her hostage. However, it all went wrong when the guard shot Leeann. When the sisters reached the spot where they had planned to change clothes, Leeann died from her gunshot wounds. So Rebecca stripped Leeann of the robber’s clothes, buried them, put her clothes on Leeann and buried her too. She took the money and returned to California assuming her sisters identity. When her mother suffered a stroke, the day after the body of Leeann was discovered and misidentified as Rebecca, she moved back home to take care of her, still posing as Leeann. After learning this Jesse chooses not to arrest her. He also tells Gino that a woman stole the money and used most of it up taking care of her sick mother. Gino thinks Jesse is being facetious and doesn’t know where the money is at all, to which Jesse concedes. Gino agrees to pull Terrance off of him, but that night in his home Terrance shoots at Jesse while he is straightening his shortstop picture that is perpetually crooked. Luckily Jesse sees Terrance in the reflection of the glass and ducks causing Terrance to miss. Jesse dives for his gun on the coffee table and takes cover behind the kitchen counter where he returns fire and kills Terrance Genest.

Subplots

A subplot involves the rape of an 18 year old girl. Cathleen Holton alleges that she was brought aboard a schooner, the Lady Jane, was forced to strip and was then raped. A passenger on the boat brings Jesse a video tape of the alleged rape, where it is clear she is a willing participant. Jesse speaks with the girl’s father, and tells him not to seek revenge on the boat owner. Jesse then confronts Cathleen and gets her to admit she was not raped. He admits that she was taken advantage of, but that nothing illegal happened. He urges her to learn from this mistake, knowing that she is ashamed of what she did and how it would make her parents feel. During a final confrontation with the boat owner, Rose slaps him in the face and tells him he should be ashamed of himself. This subplot is the only similarity to the novel which has a completely different plot all together. For more on the novel, see its main article Sea Change.

See also

• Jesse Stone novels

References

• http://www2.variety.com/ref.asp?u=IMDB&p=H2BE&sid=VE1117933713
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0905345/