Stillwater

This is an article “Stillwater” by Marc Primo

Release date: 30 July 2021 (USA)

Director: Tom McCarthy

Language: English

Production Companies: Participant, DreamWorks Pictures, Slow Pony, Anonymous Content, 3dot Productions, Supernatural Pictures

Producers: Steve Golin, Tom McCarthy, Jonathan King, Liza Chasin

SPOILER ALERT: Made like a true American movie with the typical hero overcoming challenges overseas, yet marred by the controversy surrounding its inspiration, this latest Matt Damon vehicle explores international boundaries and the pursuit for the truth to liberate the wrongfully convicted. Eerily similar to what American author, activist, and journalist Amanda Knox experienced during her college years in Italy, the Stillwater crew led by its director Tom McCarthy (Spotlight, The Visitor, Station Agent) maintain that everything is fictionalized, or in this case, art imitating truth, albeit too closely.

Stillwater revolves around the relationship between small-town father and oil worker Bill Baker (Damon) and her college daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin) who went to study in Marseille, France, and was later convicted of murdering her unfaithful significant other and roommate Lina. Allison is currently serving her fifth year of a nine-year sentence when Bill visits her and opens up a can of worms that lead to various clues that could either exonerate her daughter or plunge her into deeper trouble.

Freudian conflicts

The way the film establishes itself is all too familiar but what’s unsettling is how it mimics the events in Knox’s case, while also integrating several crime-thriller tropes that don't seem to fit the package. Viewers will detect how Allison doubts her father’s capabilities early which conflicts the Freudian ego with the super-ego that ultimately leads him to follow the breadcrumb trail to the truth. However, Stillwater is far from being the thought-provoking movie that made other Freudian capers such as Mullholland Drive or Rear Window. Instead, McCarthy shuffles emotions with the mystery it offers audiences with some dash of physical action.

To the casual viewer, it’s easy enough to relate to BIll’s character – simple with his southern twang, signature work cap, and the bald eagle tattoo on his arm. We don’t know how many times we’ve seen the simple man save the day but we just can’t get enough of it. But for more critical viewers who expect to experience or at least witness how real life is depicted on screen, Stillwater falls short in conveying the truth that it’s allegedly searching for.

The Amanda Knox factor

No less than Knox came out with the most devastating critique of the film’s veracity by saying it pushes the Italian prosecutor’s false agenda into fiction. She later criticized McCarthy for not having the empathy nor the effort to reach out to her to at least acknowledge the film’s inspiration. At any rate, Stillwater opened to mixed reviews and Knox’s comments certainly did not go unheard.

For McCarthy’s part, he expressed in several press interviews that he chose to tell a mystery story set in a Mediterranean town where the clash of cultures could be further explored. And to the director’s credit, there are many elements in the film that would suggest that it somehow veers away from Knox’s case including the relationship angles between Bill and Marseille native Virginie (Camille Cottin) and her 8-year old daughter Maya (Lilou Siauvaud). This would prove to be the added emotional spell that McCarthy will cast upon the audience to motivate Bill in his pursuit. After all, he is not a tourist, let alone does he have the money to go back and forth for his daughter’s sake.

A different writing approach

What McCarthy succeeds in is his way of panning the lens towards Bill’s character and perspective to push that hero envelope further. Embattled with his daughter’s case, struggling with money, and constantly relying on odd jobs, Bill still has the heart to strike up relationships with the people he encounters and continues to deal with. There’s a strong character in Bill that many viewers can attach themselves to. He prays, says ‘ma’am’ and ‘sir’, and has the right morals to do the right thing despite the gravity of his predicament.

Credit also goes to French screenwriters Thomas Bidegain and Noé Debré, along with McCarthy and Marcus Hinchey, who collectively were able to harmonize the physical action with the film’s emotional pull. Audiences will thank the writing team for sparing them another cliche action flick with all the guns and well-choreographed fight sequences. Instead, the team crafted a script that seems to float in a rather unorthodox manner wherein scenes are left transpiring off-screen so they can take viewers deeper into each characters’ psyche.

Somehow, this puts cultural differences to good use as the story is told. From faint character glimpses such as questions on who Bill voted for in the last elections, to how the writers intentionally hid what was already obvious, establishing how cultural barriers pose challenges for Bill became easy enough to absorb.

Damon for the win

Of course, there was also the trail where Bill tries to hunt down the true culprit who was with Allison and Lina at the bar the night of the murder. This cut and mouse tale intersperses and becomes the wellspring that unearths Bill’s past and how he tries to correct his failed fatherhood with Allison towards Maya.

Though Bill’s character was multi-dimensional, Damon’s performance shone brightly throughout the film. From how he controls his temper to how he thinks he should behave in a foreign country as the poor American, Damon was able to paint his domestic and overseas situations well so that audiences won’t have a hard time following his character, wherever he might be.

Same as how Bill’s character offers multiple layers, the story also goes from relationships to following a trail of clues, and to the developments in Allison’s case. As much as audiences will be invested in how these relationships present themselves onscreen, the arrival of the police who are investigating Bill seems to take audiences in another direction.

For some, Stillwater might just be another modern Western tale set in a foreign land where the cowboy does everything the American way – all out but without guns blazing. Overall, it is a thoughtful drama that hides behind the cloak of the action-thriller genre. Fans who might be expecting Jason Bourne here will be disappointed as in his place, it is instead a failure of a man seeking his redemption at fatherhood. And we are all invited to witness that transformation amidst all of the chaos that’s going on behind the scenes.