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Stillwater (2021) Movie Review

Drama / Crime

By Diresh SheridPublished about a year ago 3 min read
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75% Rotten Tomatoes | 6.6/10 IMDb

Bill Baker is a man of red-state stereotypes who lives in Oklahoma. He listens to old-school country music while driving his pickup truck between manual labor gigs, and he never misses an opportunity to watch his favorite college football team. Bill’s house is run-down, but he keeps a couple of guns there, which seems natural to him. Despite his rough exterior, Bill is a complex man with many contradictions.

“Stillwater,” a film directed by Tom McCarthy, explores these complexities through Bill's story of hard-earned second chances. Matt Damon plays Bill, bringing great subtlety and pathos to the role. His performance is particularly powerful when he cracks his stoic character open, allowing warmth, vulnerability, and even hope to shine through on his road to redemption.

However, the film is not just about Bill. It tells the story of a father and daughter trying to mend their strained relationship. Bill's daughter, Allison, has already served five years of a nine-year prison sentence for the murder of her lover, a young Muslim woman. Allison insists she's innocent, and Bill resolutely believes her. The film explores their relationship as Bill makes frequent visits to chat with his daughter and do her laundry. While Allison pretends to care as he prattles on about Oklahoma State football, the story shows how life is brutal and being a screw-up is hereditary, pushing against its feel-good, Hollywood-ending urges.

The primary driving narrative of the film is the possibility that Allison can prove her innocence based on jailhouse hearsay about an elusive young Arab man. Bill knocks on doors and follows one lead after another, talking to people who either help him or don't in his efforts to exonerate his only child. In this vein, the film is also about the racial tensions and socioeconomic disparities that exist in both France and the United States, and the blindly confident swagger with which some Americans carry themselves overseas. Even someone like Bill who is, to borrow from the Tim McGraw song, humble and kind, has this characteristic.

In the midsection of the film, the story focuses on a middle-aged man forming an unexpected friendship with a single mom and her little girl. Virginie, played by Camille Cottin, and her daughter, Maya, played by Lilou Siauvaud, give the widowed Bill a shot at righting the wrongs of his past. Virginie initially connects with Bill when she offers to help him in his investigation by making calls, translating, and generally serving as his guide through an ancient city he’s barely gotten to know. The relationship makes no sense on paper – she's a bohemian actress, he's an oil-rig worker – but the small kindnesses they show each other allow them to forge a bond, and allow Bill to reveal more about himself and his tortured history, piece by piece.

This is far and away the strongest section of “Stillwater.” If the majority of the film had focused on this understated dynamic and the quiet hope of better days to come, it would have been more than satisfying. The performances here are lovely, and Damon enjoys distinctly sweet connections with both Cottin and Siauvaud. But then it takes a significant turn into darker territory toward the end, with twists predicated on major coincidences and reckless decisions.

In conclusion, "Stillwater" is a film that explores a range of themes and narratives, from the complexities of red-state stereotypes to the strained relationship between a father and daughter, from racial tensions and socioeconomic disparities to the possibility of redemption and second chances. Matt Damon's performance is nuanced and emotionally resonant, and the film's midsection, which focuses on his character forming an unexpected friendship with a single mom and her daughter, is particularly strong.

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Diresh Sherid

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