STILLWATER (2021) FILM REVIEW

 

STILLWATER (2021) 

The resilience of a father is subjected to many things in Tom McCarthy‘s Stillwater. At first, things seem pretty simple. This is an Oklahoma working class man who puts everything aside to head over to France to support his daughter. You can see he’s broken inside. Years and years of supporting what’s left of his family and now he’s gotta face a father’s worst fear: seeing his child waste away her life in prison. She claims to be innocent and he believes her above anything else. When there’s a chance for release (and salvation), he blindly considers it. Bill Baker’s so deep inside his agenda, he changes his life to prove his daughter innocent.

This is when Stillwater enters its dramatic and sober territory, one that doesn’t admit the remote idea that it’s all for naught. Because the plot allows you to have a couple of ideas: what if she’s actually innocent? Who’s the killer in the murder mystery? How far is Bill willing to go to prove it? In every scenario, he’s right. He’s fighting for something he believes to be certain and it all involves his daughter being released as a victim. However, the secret in Stillwater is darker than you can imagine. It doesn’t even matter if she did it or not. What matters now is how a father will do everything possible to make us believe he’s right.

McCarthy’s film is led by an unbelievably versatile Matt Damon in the role of Baker. His performance is impeccable. There are no excesses or melodramatic turns that could turn his character into a collection of possibilities. Damon forces us to believe in a man’s priority to protect his daughter over anything else. But he doesn’t do it with explosive tones or even changes in his attitude. His physicality translates to a coldness that’s necessary to believe in his mission.

Stillwater is pure drama that turns into a crime thriller because of a powerful cause that Baker turns into a lifestyle and he will never stop trying to achieve his goal to prove his daughter innocent. It’s why the film’s ending feels invasive, poignant and even unsettling. When he discovers the whole truth about the case, he understands the moral downturn is his and his only. The rest of them have just made mistakes, unwilling and almost involuntary. Baker’s the only one with many demons in his head that will never ever leave him.