Stillwater (2021) Focus/Drama RT: 140 minutes Rated R (language) Director: Tom McCarthy Screenplay: Tom McCarthy, Marcus Hinchey, Thomas Bidegain and Noe Debre Music: Mychael Danna Cinematography: Masanobu Takayanagi Release date: July 30, 2021 (US) Cast: Matt Damon, Camille Cottin, Abigail Breslin, Lilou Siauvaud, Deanna Dunagan, Idir Azougli, Anne Le Ny, Moussa Maaskri, Isabelle Tanakil, Naidra Ayadi. Box Office: $14.6M (US)/$19.8M (World)
Rating: ** ½
The drama Stillwater is two-thirds a good film. It starts off strong with its thoughtful approach to the story of a father trying to free his estranged daughter from a French prison after she’s wrongly convicted of murder. Based loosely (and I mean loosely) on the Amanda Knox, it’s at its best when it focuses on its main character and his efforts to atone for past sins while navigating the tricky French legal system. Sadly, it starts to fall apart in the third act beginning with an unbelievable coincidence followed by a series of bad choices on the father’s part, an arbitrary plot twist and one big unanswered question at the end. It undermines what could have been a truly great film.
Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting) stars as Bill Baker, an Oklahoma oil worker living the best life he knows how. He’s not an educated man; he frequently refers to himself as a “dumb ass”. He’s a recovering alcoholic/addict whose past behaviors cost him his family. He’s trying to be a better version of himself, if not for himself then his daughter Allison (Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine) who’s been locked up for the past five years for a murder she says she didn’t commit. Bill, who strongly believes in his daughter’s innocence, sees a chance at redemption when new information surfaces that could clear her name. The only problem is she doesn’t trust him enough to do something about it. Instead, she has him hand-deliver a letter (written in French) to her lawyer who tells him it’s not enough to compel the courts to reopen her case. Rather than leave his daughter completely without help, he lies and tells her the lawyer’s all over it.
Bill decides to look into the matter himself. From the start, he has two strikes against him. He’s not familiar with the country and doesn’t speak a single word of the native language. He asks for help from an acquaintance, Virginie (Cottin, Allied). A struggling actress and single mother, she agrees to act as guide and interpreter. It doesn’t take long for Bill to bond with her young daughter Maya (Siauvaud), a little cutie who teaches him French words as he reciprocates with English words. Eventually, he moves in with Virginie and Maya as sort of a surrogate dad and husband. His relationship with them is a way of making up for how he screwed up with his own family. He and Allison share a civil but noticeably strained relationship that nearly blows up when she finds out the truth about her lawyer.
The best part of Stillwater is how director Tom McCarthy (Spotlight) carefully draws and develops his characters. I especially like how he paints the father-daughter relationship. Bill frequently visits Allison. He brings her fresh clothes. They chat about football and other things. They pray together. He takes her dirty laundry. She’s civil to him despite all the resentment bubbling beneath her surface. He was a terrible father and he knows it. He wants to mend fences and will do anything to achieve that end. He’ll even put his life in danger like he does when he starts asking questions in a bad section of Marseilles. You know he’s eventually going to get his ass kicked by the rough locals.
I love the relationship between Bill, Virginie and Maya. As a potential couple, they don’t make a bit of sense. He’s a laborer from a red state who listens to old school country music, prays before every meal (even one from Sonic) and would have voted for Trump if he could. She’s a bohemian actress who works in theater and hates racists. She’s an open book; he doesn’t like to talk about himself. As they grow closer, he reveals more and more about himself. In one sweet scene, Bill dances with mother and daughter to “Help Me Make It Through the Night” by Sammi Smith.
As good as Stillwater is in its first two acts, things take a downward turn with an unbelievable coincidence meant to drive the legal plot forward. It and Bill’s subsequent bad choices are intended to show his self-destructive side and they do, but they show those of the filmmaker as well. The whole last section undoes almost everything Stillwater accomplished up to that point. It’s a shame because Damon delivers one of his very best performances to date playing a character whose politics are opposite his own. The whole cast does a fine job. Breslin proves her talents extend beyond childhood roles in Little Miss Sunshine, No Reservations and Definitely Maybe. Cottin is very good as Virginie, a kind woman who grows to love her American houseguest. I see a bright future ahead for young Miss Siauvaud. She’s not only adorable as Maya, she’s also open and honest with her emotions.
Stillwater definitely has its good points, but it’s ultimately less than satisfying. I wish McCarthy and his co-writers stayed within the realm of verisimilitude at the end. I just didn’t buy it, any of it. It’s like it was written for a whole different movie. Also, does it really need to be 140 minutes long? Still, Stillwater is good enough to merit an at-home viewing when there’s nothing good on TV.
