Stillwater – A Thin and Directionless Derivative Drama

Just because a film may check all the boxes, it doesn’t necessarily make it good. Films are a collection of plot elements or ideas that are put together in a somewhat coherent manner with a direction. Nevertheless, countless films have gotten away with presenting themselves as an incoherent collection of pieces as long as enough of those pieces hit the right buttons with audiences. This lazy and emotionally-manipulative way to focus on eliciting emotion rather than make a competent film can be hit or miss but is ultimately annoying as it can be said that many films merely do this in order to target awards. Stillwater is arguably one of these Oscar-bait films. While not bringing anything new to the table any way in terms of story or filmmaking whatsoever, it swings for the fences and tries to get by on eliciting emotion by checking off all the boxes needed to generate a series of those derivative big drama moments. Meanwhile, tying it all together was a mess of a story that could never quite find its footing and was never sure of the kind of film it wanted to be. Clocking in at a running time approaching 2.5 hours, this makes things feel much longer than it probably should have been.

Unofficially based on a true story, Stillwater is about a father named Bill Baker (Damon) who travelled from Oklahoma to Marseille, France to help his estranged daughter Allison (Breslin) who had been in prison for the last 5 years for a murder she claimed she didn’t commit (but they were estranged much earlier than that). Though this reads as an honorable premise on paper, the film quickly becomes a mess that gets so far from this that it’s unrecognizable. Whatever kind of film it happens to be at the time, it is consistently a cliché Southern man in France. The obvious culture and personality contrast inevitably brought upon moments that anyone who has ever seen any film could figure out. From there, the film stayed on that note, making the schtick, especially Bill’s accent, get old very fast and lingered in a way that distracted from almost everything else the film tried or was trying to do. Anyway, just like any devoted father would have done, when no one could help he and his daughter, Bill took matters into his own hands and performed his own investigation.

While the language barrier proved to be a challenge, Bill luckily wasn’t alone as upon his time in Marseille, he befriended an actress and single mother named Virginia (Cottin) and her daughter Maya (Lilou Siauvaud). Though he appeared to make some major headway regarding Allison’s case, he could only do so much. However, as much as Bill’s journey was about clearing his daughter’s name, it was also about repairing their relationship. Either way, he was not going to give up that easily and was also not willing to live her side. Choosing to stay near Allison, Bill went about making a life for himself in Marseille at least in the meantime. Meanwhile, he found himself some semblance of a family with Virginia and Maya as he looked to reform his ways and have the kind of relationship he never got to have with his own daughter with Maya. Whether or not it would last was a different matter altogether. Be it Bill’s investigation or his new quasi-family, Stillwater was a dull watch as the film as a whole went nowhere.

Eventually, Stillwater got back to its initial premise but with all the detours and the circling, it was hard to care by that point. While the plot was a mess and could never find any traction, neither did the characters who were all on the thin side, especially Allison, the reason for it all which made it even more frustrating. That being said, the performances still made the best out of what little there was to work with even though the majority of the character were dull. Damon of course brought his charisma and screen presence to Bill but it didn’t quite work as he, his accent, and his dad bod just seemed too awkward in the role which distracted from the rest of the film. Breslin was okay as Allison but besides the character being thin, her chemistry with Damon wasn’t there. The same could be said for Cottin as Virginia where that lack of chemistry was even more apparent. However, Siauvaud as Maya was absolutely the cutest.

In the end, Stillwater is a film that is sure to impact audiences differently, it’s story has more or less been done several times already in better films so there’s not much of a point for prospective audiences to dive into this one unless they are fans of Damon.

still courtesy of Focus Features

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.