Directed by: Tom McCarthy
Starring: Matt Damon, Abigail Breslin, Camille Cottin, Liou Siauvaud, Deanna Dunagan
Bill Baker (Damon) is a quiet, stoic Oklahoman first seen in Stillwater helping to clean up after a tornado levels a group of houses. He grabs Sonic after work and returns to his dingy home alone to eat. He says grace and digs in. After the brief interlude into Bill's underwhelming existence in Oklahoma, he is on a plane to Marseilles, France. Judging by the local hotel's familiarity with him, we know he has taken this trip numerous times. In the next scene, he is visiting his daughter Allison (Breslin) in prison, serving a nine-year sentence for the murder of her lover. She insists she's innocent and asks her father to deliver a note to her attorney outlining a possible lead who may be the actual killer, if anyone can find him.
After Bill's request to have the lead followed up on is rebuffed, he takes it upon himself to knock on doors and search for the elusive mystery man who may hold the key to Allison's case. This doesn't go as intended, and further estranges Bill from Allison. Assisting Bill to an extent is Virginie (Cottin), an actress with a young daughter named Maya (Siauvaud) who Bill first meets at the hotel and later moves in with to form a makeshift family. This is the first hour of Stillwater and most of this is covered in the movie's trailers, which aren't exactly false advertising, but suggest a thriller in which the hard-headed American cuts through the French legal bs to free his innocent daughter from prison. Stillwater is only partly that. A large chunk of its 140-minute running time involves Bill's burgeoning relationship with Virginie and he and Allison coming to terms with their own pasts. It is here where the movie bogs down while trying to veer off into a promising direction, as if we were watching two different movies.
The title Stillwater not only refers to Bill's hometown (where his beloved Oklahoma State Cowboys play), but also a reference to the old adage of still water running deep. Bill has a troubled Past which has affected his relationship to Allison, who may be more of a chip off the old block than she realizes. Bill is troubled and flawed, but attempting to redeem himself by aiding Allison and creating a family with Virginie and Maya. Underneath Bill's baseball cap, flannel shirts, blue jeans, and economic use of words, we think we have Bill wired, but the strength of Damon's performance lies in the tenderness underneath. It is Damon who anchors the movie and nearly pulls it through all by himself. But then Stillwater returns to its main event involving Allison and the murder of her lover, and all credibility flies off the rails.
Without revealing whether Allison committed the murder or was complicit in it, Stillwater nearly ventures into Prisoners (2013) territory. You remember that movie? The one where Hugh Jackman captures his daughter's alleged kidnapper, ties him to a chair somewhere, and beats the holy hell out of him? I can forgive you if you don't recall the movie, but the same dynamic applies here. The question is whether this is a thriller plot element thrown in for good measure or whether this is something Bill would organically do. Another development which mutes any potential revelations or an intense emotional payoff is the fact that Allison is soon allowed out of prison one day a week on a release program, so Allison at least is allowed to spend some time in the sun and swimming in a lake.
Then, a couple of insane plot swerves which don't connect logically rear their heads. If you think about where they lead, you will deduce that Allison's plan should've backfired, but instead it leads to a quasi-happy ending and a host of intended moral ambiguities. The way the issue of Allison's guilt or innocence is resolved is almost ludicrous. Like most of Stillwater, it's all over the map.
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