Review: ‘Stillwater’ Runs Deep Thanks To Great Performances, Intriguing Story

SALT LAKE CITY — Not all summer movies are “event” movies. If you look, you can often find other gems that don’t get as much fanfare.  “Stillwater,” starring Matt Damon and directed by Academy Award winner Tom McCarthy (“Spotlight”), is one of those films.

Damon plays unemployed Oklahoma oil rigger Bill Baker and looks like the embodiment of a country music ballad: Jeans, cap, goatee, pickup, flannel shirt.

So you can imagine how out of place Bill looks when he suddenly moves to Marseilles, France, to try and help his estranged daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin), serving time in a French prison after being convicted of murdering her girlfriend.

Abigail claims she’s innocent, but when her lawyer and local police say some alleged new evidence won’t change anything, Bill tries to take matters into his own hands to investigate the lead.

After Bill inadvertently befriends 8-year-old Maya (Lilou Siauvaud), her mother Virginie (Camille Cottin of “Killing Eve”) helps him to navigate language barriers, cultural differences and the complicated legal system.

But as he spends more time in Marseilles, he becomes more entwined in Virginie and Maya’s lives, giving him a second chance at being the man he failed to be for his own daughter.

Compelling performances from Damon, Cottin and Siauvaud carry “Stillwater.”  It also authentically recreated (for me at least) the feeling of what it is like to be an American living in a foreign country.

The plot had obvious parallels with the real-life Amanda Knox story, but it also had suspenseful elements and the occasional intriguing twist thrown in.

While Damon turned in an outstanding performance, there were times where I couldn’t tell if his character Bill was supposed to be an authentic middle American man, or a parody of one.  It’s a fine line between irony, satire and mockery.

But “Stillwater” was a very engaging film carried by a talented cast, a well-acted murder mystery with tragic moments.

It is rated R for language and it is playing only in theaters.