I watched the 2021 Focus Features film “Stillwater” on Netflix DVD. Unemployed roughneck Bill Baker, played by Matt Damon, travels from Oklahoma to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter Allison played by Abigail Breslin. Imprisoned for a murder she claims she did not commit. Allison seizes on a new tip that could exonerate her and presses Bill to engage her legal team But Bill eager to prove his worth and regain his daughter’s trust takes matters into his own hands.
He is quickly stymied by language barriers, cultural differences, and a complicated legal system until he meets French actress Virginie played by Camille Cottin, mother to eight-year-old Maya played by Lilou Siauvaud.
Together, these unlikely allies embark on a journey of discovery, truth, love, and liberation. The movie was filmed on location in Oklahoma and Marseille[1]. The movie was written, produced, and directed by Tom McCarthy
(an American film director, screenwriter, and actor who has appeared in several films, including Meet the Parents and Good Night, and Good Luck, and television series such as The Wire, Boston Public, Law & Order, etc., he directed the unaired pilot for Game of Thrones).
Cast
- Matt Damon as Bill Baker – Mystic Pizza, Field of Dreams, Chasing Amy, The Rainmaker, Good Will Hunting, Saving Private Ryan, Dogma, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Titan A.E., The Legend of Bagger Vance, All the Pretty Horses, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Ocean’s Eleven, The Majestic, The Bourne Identity, DuroTrip, The Bourne Supremacy, Ocean’s Twelve, The Brothers Grimm, The Departed, Ocean’s Thirteen, The Bourne Ultimatum, Invictus, True Grit, Inside Job, The Adjustment Bureau, Contagion, Elysium, The Zero Theorem, The Monuments Men, Interstellar, The Martian, Jason Bourne, Thor: Ragnarok, Deadpool 2, Ocean’s 8, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, The Last Duel
- Abigail Breslin as Allison Baker – Signs, Raising Helen, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, Zombieland, Ender’s Game, Zombieland: Double Tap, TV episodes of Scream Queens
- Camille Cottin as Virginie – a French actress and comedian, TV episodes of Killing Eve
- Lilou Siauvaud as Maya – was born on October 8, 2011, in Italy. She is an actress, known for Stillwater (2021), Everything can happen! and Une si longue nuit (2021)
- Deanna Dunagan as Sharon – a Chicago-based American actress, TV episodes of Prison Break, Unforgettable, House of Cards, Chicago Med
- Idir Azougli as Akim – an actor, known for Stillwater (2021), The Stronghold (2020), and Shéhérazade (2018)
- Anne Le Ny as Leparq – a French actress, screenwriter, and film director.
- Moussa Maaskri as Dirosa – District 13: Ultimatum, Point Blank, Turk’s Head, Collision, Overdrive
- William Nadylam as Patrick – a French actor. He is best known for playing the role of Yusuf Kama in the Fantastic Beasts film series from the Wizarding World franchise.
The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on July 8, 2021. Amanda Knox, on whose story the film is loosely based, denounced the film and its creators on Twitter for profiting from her wrongful conviction and for distorting the facts of her story. Knox said, “by fictionalizing away my innocence, my total lack of involvement, by erasing the role of the authorities in my wrongful conviction, McCarthy reinforces an image of me as a guilty and untrustworthy person.”
The story is great, my only complaint is that it is about an hour too long. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the movie and will give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Footnotes
- Marseille is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and the capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. Situated in the historical province of Provence, it is located on the coast of the Gulf of Lion, part of the Mediterranean Sea, near the mouth of the Rhône river.
Sources
