Rent Stillwater (2021)

Worth a watch if you're a Matt Damon fan. - Stillwater review by NL

More of a drama than a thriller but Matt Damon is fantastic as per usual. It had a slow start as I was expecting more of a thriller so not as exciting as I imagined but a very enjoyable movie.

Interesting Drama - Stillwater review by GI

This drama has Matt Damon playing against type as a father trying to reconnect with his daughter whilst trying to help her prove her innocent of murder. There is a vigilante..ish story here but don't expect Damon to Jason Bourne his way through this story. He plays Bill, an American blue collar worker with past demons, who's daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin) is serving a prison sentence in Marseilles for killing her lover. He visits her whenever he can afford to and on his latest trip she wants her lawyer to get her case reopened on a snippet of information about a boy who she claims is really the guilty one. But much to Bill's frustration the lawyer and authorities do not consider there are sufficient grounds so Bill embarks on trying to find the individual himself. Not speaking French he's helped by a local woman, Virginie (Camille Cottin) and he soon bonds with her young daughter. Bill is a gentle man trying to amend for his earlier failures as a father and so is somewhat blind to whether Allison may actually be guilty of not. There are obvious parallels to the Amanda Knox case and the story is clearly influenced by it and, for the most part, the film has some good plot twists but does tip occasionally into some odd storylines. But overall it's an entertaining drama that keeps you watching but don't expect a gritty action film because this is not that it's a story of relationships caught in extraordinary circumstances.

Okie redneck meets French chic - Stillwater review by RCO

The initial background scene setting in Stillwater is brief and confusing - it helps to have read the synopsis to know what is going on at the start.

Once we get to Marseille it settles down and finds its pace. The culture clash is not overplayed as Bill settles in to a new life. The twist at the end is nicely handled (if predictable).

Slow but good - Stillwater review by CS

Took a while to warm up but found this movie quite entertaining. Good acting from all parties with a good story line

to match. Well worth a watch.

Excellent performances by Damon & Cottin lifts a potentially mediocre drama - Stillwater review by TB

After the disappointment of his performance in The Last Duel, Matt Damon has more than made up for it in this powerful and extremely watchable drama. His performance and transformation into a “roughneck” father who is desperately trying to help his daughter and get her out of prison is totally believable. I really enjoyed the performance, as well as the very profound curve that his character goes through. There is also no sanitization of the more challenging parts of his role, no hiding of the profound issues that he had trying to raise his daughter and the way that he before kept constantly letting her down and straining every sinew now to try and make it right, whatever the cost.

The chemistry with Camille Cottin is also excellent, as well as with her daughter. Abigail Breslin has the more challenging of the supporting actor’s roles, in that it is in many ways clichéd, but there is some fresh perspectives in its representation.

Tom McCarthy, who made the incredible Spotlight, again shows the level of talent he has not only as a screenwriter, but also director. Scenes are brilliantly staged, and the locations great too. It is definitely not a side of France which is picture-perfect but shows the reality of the difficulty so many people have to live in.

Finally, without giving anything away, I most loved that there was not a “neat, perfect” ending. The whole film had been showing so clearly that, in reality these situations don’t resolve themselves how we would want them to. And it leaves you with questions, as well as looking at, if you'd been in that situation, how you'd have handled it, which is what any good film should do.