Stillwater (2021)

Directed by: Tom McCarthy | 134 minutes | thriller, crime, drama | Actors: Matt Damon, Camille Cottin, Abigail Breslin, Lilou Siauvaud, Deanna Dunagan, Idir Azougli, Anne Le Ny, Moussa Maaskri, Isabelle Tanakil, Naidra Ayadi, Gilbert Traïna, Pierre Piacentino, Hamza Baggour, Jean-Marc Michelangeli, William Nadylam, Nassiriat Mohamed, Mahia Zrouki

Director Tom McCarthy had been toying with the idea of ​​making a thriller set in a European port for ten years. His main sources of inspiration were the Mediterranean noir writers Andrea Camilleri, Massimo Carlotto and especially Jean-Claude Izzo, whose Marseille trilogy eventually caught McMarthy’s eye on Marseille in the south of France. “A visit to the city and I knew I had found my haven,” said the man behind the Oscar-winning ‘Spotlight’ (2015). McCarthy was particularly captivated by the stratification and dynamism of the city and the confluence of cultures that define Marseille’s character. But it took quite a few years before he found the right story to tell. Only with the involvement of Thomas Bidegain and Noé Debré, best known for their collaboration with Jacques Audiard (including the rock-solid ‘Un prophète’ from 2009 and ‘De rouille et d’os’ from 2012), McCarthy managed to write the right scenario. for ‘Stillwater’ (2021). When so many different people have focused on a story – Marcus Hinchey’s name is also mentioned in the credits – it is often noticeable in the film. ‘Stillwater’ also clearly has two faces: on the one hand this is a sober thriller about a father who wants to right the wrongs allegedly done to his daughter, on the other it is a moving drama about a devastated man who tries to put together the shards of his life. and gets help from totally unexpected quarters.

The lead role in ‘Stillwater’ is played by Matt Damon. He plays William “Bill” Baker, a quintessential Stillwater, Oklahoma redneck who has made a complete mess of his life. His wife took her own life several years earlier, and after leaving behind a devastating trail of drink and drugs, Bill has little choice but to work hard on construction sites and demolition sites. He uses his hard-earned money for plane tickets to Marseille, where he visits his daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin). She was convicted five years earlier for the murder of her roommate Lina, with whom she also shared the bed but who was unfaithful to her. It becomes clear that Allison has never really thought highly of her father when she asks him to pass on a handwritten note to her lawyer Leparq (Ann Le Ny). In French, because she doesn’t want her father to know what it’s about because she finds him incapable and unreliable. As it turns out: there appears to be someone who can confirm that someone else killed Lina, which would exonerate her. However, Leparq refuses to work with the information because she can’t do much with rumors. Curious about what Allison has written, Bill asks the single mother Virginie (Camille Cottin), whom he remembers from the hotel where she temporarily stayed with her nine-year-old daughter Maya (natural talent Lilou Siauvaud, who steals all the scenes she is in), to translate the letter for him.

One Akim (Idir Azougli) is said to have bragged about getting away with Lina’s murder, so Bill sets out to find him. But as a rough construction worker with patriotic tattoos on his upper arm, who doesn’t speak a word of French and has no idea how Marseille’s society works, he doesn’t get very far. Virginie, who according to a friend likes such seemingly hopeless ‘projects’, offers to help him. This appears to be the beginning of a slowly blossoming friendship between two opposites: the noble, social, eloquent, liberal theater actress Virginie and the simple, taciturn and unworldly country bumpkin who has never seen a ‘tea-eater’ inside. Those clashes between cultures and worldviews could have been a little more subtle here and there (Virginie’s girlfriend laughs and asks if Bill voted for Trump and whether he has weapons in the house), but they do make sure that you as a viewer warm up to these characters. An important role is also reserved for little Maya, who, despite the language barrier, almost immediately clicks with that big, stiff American with his caps and his lumberjack shirts and is partly responsible for making the bond between her mother and Bill stronger. is becoming. What he did wrong with his own daughter, he seems to want to fix with this surrogate child. In fact, things are going so well that Bill decides to stay in Marseille, not only to be close to Allison, but mainly because of the (at first platonic) relationship with Virginie and her daughter. McCarthy and cinematographer Masanobu Takanayagi bathe the scenes in the Frenchwoman’s home in light, as if to emphasize once again: this is where the hope lies.

For a moment Bill’s mission to get his daughter released has completely faded into the background, only to suddenly resurface when Allison is allowed a day off for the first time. More than once it shows how much damage Bill’s old behavior has done to his daughter, how deep it goes. Damon and Breslin pull this off superbly in some powerful scenes. Bill is a man of few words and a somewhat clumsy attitude, who turns everything good in his life into one big mess. Despite this, Damon manages to win our sympathy, although the unbalanced script sometimes makes him make incomprehensible choices. The heart of the film, however, lies with the endearing and merciful Camille Cottin, whom we embrace from the very first moment. ‘Stillwater’ is in fact two different films in one. The two sides of the coin don’t always fit neatly together, but McCarthy at least dares to make choices that aren’t always obvious and that make us empathize with the characters. The thriller part is significantly less convincing than Bill’s personal journey, who as a stranger in a distant land not only literally discovers a new world but also figuratively makes the necessary discoveries about himself.