‘Stillwater’: Matt Damon Thriller From Tom McCarthy Never Quite Changes the Tide [Cannes Review]

It’s been a rocky four-plus years in American foreign policy, and nowhere is this more apparent than in “Stillwater,” the new thriller-slash-family drama from “Spotlight” director Tom McCarthy, which premiered out-of-competition at Cannes. Partially inspired by the Amanda Knox trial, but mostly a strangely affecting family drama concocted by screenwriting team Thomas Bidegain, Noé Debré, and Marcus Hinchey, the film totters uneasily between the two modes over the course of 140 minutes, never quite finding its footing. Those expecting a tight, “Taken”-style action film will be distracted by the sweet, though lengthy family scenes, which are in turn jarringly out of sync with predictable, clunky returns to the A-plot. In short, it feels like a Frankenstein’s monster of at least two movies awkwardly combined—and perhaps a short, about French theater—riddled with plot holes, implausibilities, and ill-timed comedic beats. 

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The first act of “Stillwater” more or less follows the Knox case, picking up five years after the initial sentencing. Matt Damon plays Bill Baker, an Oklahoman oil rigger whose daughter, Allison (Abigail Breslin). Allison has been incarcerated for five years in a Marseilles prison after being tried for murdering her French Arab girlfriend, Lina—a crime she says she did not commit. During one of her father’s routine visits, Allison requests that Bill pass a letter to her lawyer, Leparq, which Bill discovers to be a plea to reopen her case and consider new DNA evidence that may convict a local man named Akim and prove her innocence. When the lawyer refuses, Bill takes it upon himself to find the evidence and free his daughter on his own.

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But Bill is not James Bond or Liam Neeson from “Taken,” and his tactics are sloppy and unconsidered, coupled with a language barrier and cultural knowledge gap. This is where Virginie (Camille Cottin, of “Call My Agent!” acclaim) and Maya (Lilou Siauvaud) come in. A friendly local theater actress and her precocious daughter staying next door to Bill at the Best Western in Marseilles quickly take to the American and, for some reason, commit themselves to solve all his problems within minutes of meeting. Virginie shuttles Bill around Marseilles, helping translate in interviews with locals who may have seen Akim. And when his investigation hits a roadblock, he moves in with them, begins a romantic relationship with Virginie, and constructs a makeshift family. Here, he can relive an alternate version of fatherhood to his parentage of Allison, hoping to correct his past mistakes (of which there are many).

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This cultural exchange and familial bond are where “Stillwater” very briefly succeeds, and one wonders what the film could have been if not awkwardly bookended by what amounts to half a mediocre psychological thriller. Damon and Cottin share passable onscreen chemistry, their characters showing care for each other in their own, private ways. Bill handles maintenance around the home while Virginie introduces him to French ways of life. And young Lilou Siauvaud is also very capable, playing both mischievous and endearing as Virginie’s daughter. The trio makes a sweet family, dancing in the living room to Sammi Smith’s “Help Me Make It Through the Night.” Perhaps they could have been their own film. 

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If only. McCarthy and his writers toggle cumbersomely back to Allison’s storyline, which wraps up with a chance encounter, a chase scene, and an extended hostage situation. All of this gets resolved by a very convenient escape, which also goes unexplained. So does a troubling storyline (if you could even call it that, amounting to only two or three scenes) about attempted suicide. 

What exactly is “Stillwater”’s point with all this? For every point it makes—and it does try to make some, about acceptance, family, race, class, guilt—it seems to double back in its execution. It gestures feebly at political commentaries with jokes about Trump and gun ownership but never sticks the landing. Its characters end up in roughly the same place where they began. Perhaps these two kinds of staticness are related. Though it debates at times and also critiques European racism, the film ultimately seems to endorse an American exceptionalism in which white Americans can enter another country, be disruptive, whether purposefully or not, be absolved of their wrongdoings, and return home without so much as a scratch. No change in the tide to be found here. [C]

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