Stillwater | Film Review

This film wasn't really on my radar until it came out on the Sky Premiere channel, but the premise sounded intriguing so I decided to watch it.

Bill Baker (Matt Damon) travels to France to see his daughter, Allison (Abigail Breslin) who has been imprisoned for murder. As Allison continues to protest her innocence, Bill investigates the case to find out the truth.

I actually liked this film a lot more than I thought I would.

As I said, I found the premise really intriguing. Even before putting the film on, I was interested in whether Allison committed the murder, and how Bill would try to solve the case.

I really liked the characters, which again I didn't really expect. Because while the plot drives everything forward, the characters are what make the film interesting. Even though you don't really get a lot of time or space to know the characters, you are invested in their story.

The film is built on the relationships of these people, and the chemistry (platonic and otherwise) between the actors and their characters, and this was the best thing about the film. The characters and actors had chemistry, they worked well together, and I would like to see these same characters in a film with a different plot, because I really loved seeing them together.

The plot itself was only okay; it was somewhat interesting (particularly towards the end of the film) but the characters are what kept me watching.

This is quite a long film (2hr 20mins), and while it didn't need to be as long as it was, it never felt boring or too long.

Overall, this was an enjoyable, interesting movie with great performances. I'd definitely recommend it.

6.5/10