Stillwater: Movie Review

After his daughter is convicted of the murder of her roommate in France, a father must try and prove her innocence. After new evidence comes to light, Bill must try and find the real killer and help his daughter get home.

Stillwater seems like a story we’ve maybe heard before and that’s because it is very similar to Amanda Knox’s story. In fact, Knox herself said it is very similar to her story. And while the writer and director don’t say it is explicitly based on her story, there is no denying that it is at least loosely based on it.

Matt Damon, who plays Bill, gives one of his best performances to date. He really embodied the father who messed up a lot, can’t show emotion, and is grieving the loss of his daughter’s freedom. Damon plays the roughneck Oklahoman very well. In fact, he might be one of the best parts of the movie.

Somewhere in the middle of the film it loses the plot. Not in a baad way, in fact I wanted to watch the other story more than the one that was presented at the start. After Bill finds out the name of the potential killer, he entrusts a woman he met at his hotel to help him track the killer down. This leads to a friendship between the two. Bill then spends the next couple of months living with the woman and her daughter. Making up for a lost relationship with his own daughter perhaps?

When we get back to the actual plot, we are taken for a bit of an unexpected and almost out of character ride when Bill finally confronts the killer. His character development takes a weird turn and the movie loses a little of what was making it special.

Abigail Breslin is in the movie very little considering the movie is about if she killed her roommate. Because of this her performance should have been powerful but she just plays Allison like a bratty kid, which isn’t bad but not a standout performance. She shows little to no emotion in a scene that should have been something we remember. In fact, by the middle to the end of the movie you forgot about her character altogether.

In the end, Stillwater is just a puddle. It lacks depth and the story that should have been told, Bill and his relationship with the French woman, was just a flash in the pan. By the end of the movie nothing has really changed and you feel almost like you didn’t watch a movie at all. Damon did some of his best work in a movie that is forgettable.