In the midst of the blockbuster season comes a drama more fitting a fall or spring box office release. This weekend sees the premiere of director and screenwriter Tom McCarthy's first post-Spotlight cinematic film in theaters. What's being marketed as a Taken-lite action thriller is in fact the totally opposite. This is a slight mystery with its foundation built around a familial drama that extends from Oklahoma to Marseille, France.
Matt Damon stars in the overtly sentimental, if wholly overlong dramatic film, Stillwater. When a roughneck's daughter is accused of killing her lesbian lover, he must travel to France to visit her in prison and attempt to free her via any legal means available. The resulting film is a watchable but elongated one that is virtuous in its telling but overstays its welcome.
Loosely based on the Amanda Knox story, this tale of a supposedly innocent woman imprisoned for her girlfriend’s murder hinges on a typically strong Damon but subverts itself too many times by consistently digging into a new bond with his French lover and her nine year old daughter. Instead of relying on the case at hand, director Tom McCarthy sidelines the film with a constant string of scenes about their growing affection and love, which ultimately steals from the central plot of Stillwater. Although the scenes between Damon and Siauvaud tug at the heartstrings, it becomes a sticking point after being continuously and repeatedly bashed over the head with melodrama.
Armed with a goatee and a southern drawl, Damon slips into the role of Bill Baker with his usual skill set. He owns this part hands down. It's also a nice departure for him. He's backed by excellent performances from Abigail Breslin and his French counterparts, Camille Cottin and Lilou Siauvaud. There's a great and realistic chemistry between all the central actors. But the script sways too many times from the core idea, meandering for nearly two hours and twenty minutes. This film could have used a much shorter cut. With nearly thirty minutes of repetitive scenery left on the cutting room floor, this could have been way better and would have allowed for some of the mushiness to be abandoned.
McCarthy's screenplay continually diverts from its path, even straying into near horror elements at times. This is a plot thread that should have been eliminated totally and just doesn't add up when looking at the whole picture. There is a really great film in here somewhere. Unfortunately, the writing seems to fail the locales, the beautiful French landscapes, the downtrodden complexes, and the heart of the story. While the character of Baker shows massive growth as a flawed human being, we end up feeling back at square one as we’re force fed a message that nothing ever changes.
The Knox murder makes for an interesting topic in itself. If they had stuck to creating something more centralized around the real life events, this could have been an excellent film, especially with such an amazing cast. Unfortunately enough, this levels off at fair to middling mediocrity.
-CG
