Stillwater
Year: 2021
Director: Tom McCarthy
Starring: Abigail Breslin, Camille Cottin, Matt Damon & Lilou Siauvaud
Runtime: 140 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 18/08/21
Director: Tom McCarthy
Starring: Abigail Breslin, Camille Cottin, Matt Damon & Lilou Siauvaud
Runtime: 140 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 18/08/21
I remember the media coverage of the 2007 murder of British exchange student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy very well, in fact it’s one of the most memorable cases of my life so far because of just how much it consumed the British media. Kercher wasn’t the focus of the coverage however, instead it was prime suspect in the case, her housemate Amanda Knox, an American exchange student. The twisted tale of satanic orgies that filled the press, and Knox being the devil incarnate are what I remember most vividly; and it took eight years for Knox and her at the time boyfriend Raffalle Sollecito to be acquitted of all charges due to the botched investigation. It’s a horrific story that I don’t think anyone will ever know the true events of, and one that semi-regularly re-enters my consciousness.
Stillwater tells the story of Bill Baker (Matt Damon), the father of Allison (Abigail Breslin) who five years prior had been sentenced to nine years imprisonment for the murder of her girlfriend Lina in France, something she protests her innocence for. When Bill learns of new information surrounding a potential lead towards Lina’s true killer, he begins to perform his own investigations. Along the way he is aided by Virgine (Camille Cottin), a local actress, whom he develops a relationship with and helps care for her young daughter Maya (Lilou Siauvaud).
Stillwater tells the story of Bill Baker (Matt Damon), the father of Allison (Abigail Breslin) who five years prior had been sentenced to nine years imprisonment for the murder of her girlfriend Lina in France, something she protests her innocence for. When Bill learns of new information surrounding a potential lead towards Lina’s true killer, he begins to perform his own investigations. Along the way he is aided by Virgine (Camille Cottin), a local actress, whom he develops a relationship with and helps care for her young daughter Maya (Lilou Siauvaud).
Whilst the events of Stillwater are not based on the real events surrounding the case of Meredith Kercher’s murder and Amanda Knox’s imprisonment, it does use the case as a framing device for a story about a father trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter by proving her innocence.
The similarities are more than coincidental, and whilst the details of the fictional murder are not the same as the real one, they’re so close it’s difficult to watch Stillwater without being reminded of Knox being plastered over headlines and her private life being exposed in the newspapers.
But stepping away from the real-world similarities, how does Stillwater hold up as a film? Thankfully very well. Damon presents a touching and powerful performance as Bill, whose stoic and seemingly detached loner personality fades over time into the family man he never knew how to be when his daughter was younger. Breslin too delivers an strong performance however she wasn’t in the film as much as I had hoped, and I wish we had got to see more of her personal struggle.
The similarities are more than coincidental, and whilst the details of the fictional murder are not the same as the real one, they’re so close it’s difficult to watch Stillwater without being reminded of Knox being plastered over headlines and her private life being exposed in the newspapers.
But stepping away from the real-world similarities, how does Stillwater hold up as a film? Thankfully very well. Damon presents a touching and powerful performance as Bill, whose stoic and seemingly detached loner personality fades over time into the family man he never knew how to be when his daughter was younger. Breslin too delivers an strong performance however she wasn’t in the film as much as I had hoped, and I wish we had got to see more of her personal struggle.
The biggest problem I have with the film is that almost all of the second act is completely void of any investigating. The trail goes cold at the end of the first act and Bill doesn’t do anything about it for a very long time. Whilst the second act is still good because it allows us to see Bill’s transformation into family man and his romance with Virginie bloom, it does feel like the film lost sight of what it was originally about which is ultimately an investigative drama.
The ending also has me conflicted. Very late into the story there’s a twist thrown into the mix, and I had hoped it would be left fairly ambiguous as to the outcome of this new information, but the film addresses it head on and it recontextualises the entire experience. Whilst that in of itself is not a bad thing, and I’m sure some viewers may love that the film changes your perception of what has happened, but for me it felt as though it undermined a lot of what the character development had tried to achieve for Bill.
I very much enjoyed Stillwater, and if you’re after a slow burn, high tension investigative crime drama then you’ll have a great time with it. But its connections to real world events cannot be understated and I feel as though it does do an injustice to those events by not having them be more central to the story, particularly the character of Lina not having any presence in the story beyond a couple of sentiments voiced by Allison; and the new information presented at the end could be damaging to the way people interpret the real events that inspired it.
The ending also has me conflicted. Very late into the story there’s a twist thrown into the mix, and I had hoped it would be left fairly ambiguous as to the outcome of this new information, but the film addresses it head on and it recontextualises the entire experience. Whilst that in of itself is not a bad thing, and I’m sure some viewers may love that the film changes your perception of what has happened, but for me it felt as though it undermined a lot of what the character development had tried to achieve for Bill.
I very much enjoyed Stillwater, and if you’re after a slow burn, high tension investigative crime drama then you’ll have a great time with it. But its connections to real world events cannot be understated and I feel as though it does do an injustice to those events by not having them be more central to the story, particularly the character of Lina not having any presence in the story beyond a couple of sentiments voiced by Allison; and the new information presented at the end could be damaging to the way people interpret the real events that inspired it.