STILLWATER

Bill Baker (Matt Damon), an unemployed oil-rig worker in Stillwater, who got laid off six months ago, meanwhile he has been working as as construction worker but there isn’t much to do. Recently he has been doing cleanup after tornado Shawnee hit Oklahoma.

Bill has a daughter, Allison (Abigail Breslin), she was basically raised by her grandmother Sharon (Deanna Dunagan) after her mother killed herself. Allison was charged with murder of Lina, her roommate/lover in Marseille, and has been in jail for five years. This year, Sharon is unable to travel to France, so she asks Bill to visit Allison instead.

Allison makes a request for Bill to bring a letter to Leparq (Anne Le Ny). But Leparq refuses to help because the case is already closed, and the judge will not reopen this case based on heresay. (A statement which a witness has heard another person say, or a written statement offered in evidence without producing the author to testify as to the issues stated.)

Bill can’t read Allison’s letter because it is written in French, so he asks Virginie (Camille Cottin), a single French mom who stays in the room next door with her daughter Maya (Lilou Siauvaud) to translate it for him.

According to the letter, Allison was contacted by Dr. Patrick Okonedo (William Nadylam), chief of the outreach program. Patrick was approached by a student who met a guy at the party, she was told that Akim had stabbed a girl many years ago and got away with it. Allison believes that Akim is the same guy who kill Lina, so she wants Leparq to investigate by talking with Patrick and the student. The letter also reveals that Allison doesn’t trust her father in this matter.

Bill doesn’t want to disappoint his daughter so he lies to her that Leparq will help. Bill contacts Dirosa (Moussa Maaskri) an ex-cop, turned private investigator who requests 12,000 euro for the job of finding Akim, getting his DNA and running a test to compare it with unknown DNA found at the crime scene. Bill doesn’t have that much money and he feels uncomfortable to ask Sharon, but he believes that his daughter is innocent so he decides to pursue the case on his own.

But Bill can’t do much in this foreign city where most people don’t speak English and he only speaks American English. Bill gets help from Virginie but the investigation takes much longer time than expected, and things go sideways very quickly.

Bill later moves into Virginie’s apartment to save money and take care of Maya while Virginie is working at the theater. Their relationship is purely platonic, Bill feels like he has a chance to rectify as a father figure which he failed with his real family. It makes him almost forget the reason why he came here in the first place.

Then it takes a predictable turn in one night, Bill finally finds Akim (Idir Azougli) by chance. His reckless decision leads to complication and the end of his beautiful relationship, but the film already stretches for too long without giving much explanation.

The final twist is revealed that Allison knew the true identity of Akim all along which begs a very big question; why waiting in jail for five years? She may or may not be the one who gave order to kill Lima, there’s no scientific evidence to prove. We just have to believe her words against Akim’s. The film seems to evade the fact whether Allison is guilty or not, which becomes irrelevant in the end and doesn’t give us the satisfaction we deserve.

STILLWATER premiered at Festival de Cannes on 8 July 2021. The film was theatrically released in U.S. on 30 July.