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The story of a struggling father’s quest to clear his daughter’s name, Stillwater (Tom McCarthy, 2021), loosely based on the 2007 incarceration of American woman Amanda Knox, is a tension-filled crime drama that explores the complexity of human relationships. Starring Matt Damon as Bill Baker, a construction worker from Oklahoma, and Abigail Breslin as his incarcerated daughter Allison, the film is set mainly in Marseille, where Bill travels to visit Allison. As the story unfolds, Bill must navigate this unfamiliar French city and learn its customs, making accidentally heartfelt relationships in the process.

With dark, gritty shots of both Oklahoma and Marseille, Academy Award nominated director Tom McCarthy glamorizes neither culture and presents an authentic vision of both cities. With virtually no soundtrack, each scene feels intimate and believable, capturing the hot, bustling nature of a city like Marseille. The mixture of French and English, with subtitles for English-speaking audiences, adds to this realistic depiction and draws the viewer into life in a French city. 

This rugged authenticity is mirrored by Matt Damon’s performance, in both his physical appearance and his acting. A somewhat less dashing role than fans may have come to expect from this Hollywood hunk, his performance is outstanding. Though the dialogue is simplistic and often minimal, Damon conveys emotion wordlessly in a remarkably believable way. From his movements to his accent, he inhabits the role of a working-class American father so completely, it is easy to forget the Matt Damon from Good Will Hunting and The Bourne Identity. 

Starring alongside Damon is Abigail Breslin, who may be familiar to audiences from her role as beauty pageant hopeful Olive Hoover in the 2006 indie hit Little Miss Sunshine. Breslin gives an excellent performance in a complex and challenging role, proving once again her natural aptitude for dramatic acting. The father-daughter dynamic between Alison and Bill is complicated and often fraught, creating the right blend of tense and heartwarming moments.

Alongside its depiction of familial relationships, Stillwater explores the class differences Bill encounters in Marseille. As a blue-collar American worker, Bill struggles to understand the lifestyle of Virginie, a sympathetic French single mother who assists him in his investigations. Virginie, a theatre actress played by Camille Cottin, confronts Bill with a typically French, liberal philosophy that challenges his more conservative American values. The culture gap between Europe and America is convincingly juxtaposed by their characters and naturally causes friction in their developing relationship.

Stillwater, in its depiction of the French criminal justice system, explores the dark underbelly of racism in Marseille and French society more widely. The prejudice Bill and Virginie encounter during their investigation against those of Arabic or African descent is at once shocking and painfully unsurprising. McCarthy, through his simplistic dialogue, contrasts the experience of Alison Baker with that of racial minorities within the criminal justice system. The racial dynamics of French cities adds yet another layer of complexity to this expertly-crafted story. 

Though this film is far from a romance, it examines romantic relationships and how they are influenced by gender, race and class. Each character has experienced both an unhealthy relationship and genuine, all encompassing love for another person, sometimes simultaneously. McCarthy’s message seems to be that every human relationship is complicated and reveals something about you as a person that you had never previously understood. Although the characters are arguably terrible at romantic relationships, their experiences in love remain valid and essential to who they have come to be by the end of the film.

McCarthy’s Stillwater is a masterful drama with human nature and our relationships with each other at its centre. Matt Damon, Abigail Breslin and Camille Cottin give outstanding dramatic performances and bring humanity to a tragic story. A gripping, thought-provoking watch, audiences will be captivated by its authenticity.

Stillwater is released in Irish cinemas on August 6.