Stillwater Movie Review

Stillwater (2021)

Rent Stillwater on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Tom McCarthy & Marcus Hinchey and Thomas Bidegain & Noé Debré
Directed by: Tom McCarthy
Starring: Matt Damon, Camille Cottin, Abigail Breslin
Rated: R
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Plot
A father travels from Oklahoma to France to help his estranged daughter, who is in prison for a murder she claims she didn't commit.

Verdict
Matt Damon surprisingly plays a convincing roughneck. His character is trying to correct his past in a couple different ways through his daughter and another family. This explores the past through the present. While I was expecting this to be more Taken than a character study, this is never boring. The ending ramps up, leaving a few questions to ponder.
Watch It.

Review
This doesn't rely on any exposition for set up. Bill Baker (Matt Damon) works construction in the mid-west taking a trip to France. We don't know why at first at he visits his daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin) in a French prison. What we do know is that he's done this many times as he knows exactly what he's doing.

Matt Damon plays Bill Baker

Bill gets tied up trying to help his daughter. She's found new evidence, but the lawyer considers it hearsay and a detective is expensive to chase it down. All of this occurs in France where Bill doesn't understand the language or the culture. He coincidentally runs into a woman, Virginie (Camille Cottin), that begins to help him, but all Bill has is the suspect's first name.

Bill is doing this despite his daughter not wanting him involved. She finds out and is upset, but there's a lot of raw memories there. We've been told he wasn't a good father. This argument about Bill helping now is about the history between them. At the same time Allison saw this has her way out, so Bill is the easiest person to blame when things don't go her way.

Bill stays in France. Partly for his daughter, but he's staying with Virginie and her daughter Maya. It really feels like Bill is trying for a do-over where he can be a good father figure, and he's doing that. Virginie  certainly notes how different they are. She's a French theater actor and he's a mid-western roughneck.

Abigail Breslin and Matt Damon play Allison Baker and Bill Baker

I thought this was going to be more of an action mystery than a character drama. Bill is trying to correct his past by helping his imprisoned daughter and helping a new family. This takes a turn towards the end that strings you along as to what exactly is going on. You know nothing good will come of it. My question was just how bad will this go.

This has an understated ending that's powerful. Bill and Allison both have a changed perspective. She sees her hometown as unchanged where Bill feels everything is different. That's as much about what has happened as how they feel. After what we've seen happen, are the consequences equitable? There's legal and emotional consequences. What is just? That's where the movie leaves the viewer.