If some archaeologist is digging around some 200 years from now and happens upon a copy of this film I only hope he's able to find a DVD player that will play it. Sea Change is that good! And unlike the usual junk passing for cinema these days this movie (and others in the series) displays a range of talent that will speak well of the 21st Century movie industry. Wonderful writing, wonderful directing, wonderful acting, wonderful sound track! But perhaps most impressive of all is the photography. In fact as a professional photographer specializing in landscape stills I was time and time again blown away by the powerful composition of the scenes, the originality of the camera work, the blending of subtle tone and color. As masterful piece of cinema-photography as I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing and memories of the most powerful shots shall inform my own work for years to come.

Things have gone from bad to worse in Tom Selleck's relationship with his ex-wife 3000 miles away in California and he's starting to drink again. His counselor William Devane says that work is the best therapy because an active mind won't be thinking about those bad things that led one to alcohol abuse. So there are three cold case homicides on the Paradise police blotter. Selleck picks one involving a teller who was taken during a holdup in 1992 and whose body was found in 1994.

The bank that was held up was the one Saul Rubinek was the president of and who on the Paradise Town Council was Selleck's biggest booster. Later on in another film Rubinek is arrested when he's found laundering money for the mob in his little small town bank. Selleck in fact goes to prison to visit Rubinek for information.

He also visits the victim's family and talks to her sister Rebecca Pidgeon in his quest for justice. That looks like it could get personal as well. She's taking care of her mother who is a stroke patient and needs a lot of care.

The second case is a young girl who was raped while on board a millionaire's schooner that is in the town harbor.

Ironically there's a lot of sadness tied to both cases and Selleck does what he can control his own desire to drown his own sorrows with what he uncovers.

Even though I kind of guessed the solution of the robbery this film was still well done and acted superbly by the ensemble.

The Jesse Stone films starring Tom Selleck as a weathered police chief battling alcoholism after his divorce are a good fit for Selleck in these run of made for television films.

In Sea Change Stone is trying to solve two cases at once in the small New England town. One is an alleged rape case of an 18 year old in a yacht, the other is a unsolved murder case of a bank teller from the past. Stone and his therapist hope that investigating these cases would keep his mind of the drink as he keeps himself busy and occupied.

The film has a good strong cast with Kathy Baker and Viola Davis. They are joined here by William Sadler and Sean Young but despite the cast and Selleck's efforts, its a run of the mill television film. The plot is humdrum and some of the better actors deserve a better script.