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Movie Review: Stillwater

Mike Tyrkus

The new drama, Stillwater, from Focus Features, is one of those seemingly off-putting films that initially feels as though it hasn’t got anything substantial to say, but there is something at work just beneath the surface of the film that lingers long after the last reel has run. This is a film that, if allowed to simmer, eventually rewards you with not only a fine performance from an excellent actor, but a thinking piece on the harm that the lack of communication can cause any two people in any given relationship or situation.

The film tells the saga of Bill (Matt Damon), an Oklahoma oil-rig worker travelling to Mareseille, France to visit his estranged daughter, Allison (Abigail Breslin), who is serving time in prison for a crime she claims not to have committed. Wanting desperately to gain his daughter’s trust and prove his worth to her, Bill relays a message from Allison to her lawyer regarding new evidence in her case but is quickly met with the harsh reality of Allison’s situation. Unwilling to give his daughter the bad news, Bill befriends an actress named Virginie (Camille Cottin) and her eight-year-old daughter Maya (Lilou Siavaud) then decides to move to France and conduct his own investigation and hopefully exonerate his daughter.

Throughout the film, it is evident that director Todd McCarthy (who co-wrote the script with Marcus Hincher, Thomas Bidegain, and Noé Debré) likens Bill top a sort of average American hero, an everyman for everyone to identify with on a least some level, and it’s hard not to get caught up in that given how personable Damon is in the role. That is precisely why Bill’s story is so maddening, you can feel him growing as a person, but he is simply not capable of continuing to do so given his deep-rooted foibles and beliefs. This makes his story feel more like a tragedy than anything else and that makes it all the more painful.

Matt Damon in “Stillwater.” Photo by Jessica Forde / Focus Features – © 2021 Focus Features, LLC.

As Bill’s daughter, Breslin plays the character as though everything that has happened to (or because of her) is in no way her fault and that falls right into the character flaws present in her father. Apparently, at least in this case, the apple did not fall that far from the tree. The actor that does steal the show is Lilou Siauvaud. One would be hard-pressed not to grow attached to or feel protective of her as the film moves along.

Despites having some flaws, director McCarthy’s Stillwater delivers a fine performance from its star Matt Damon as well as amounting to tangible enough entertainment that the film’s themes of redemption and forgiveness resonate well beyond its conclusion.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com
An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

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