Sunday, September 26, 2021

Stillwater (2021)


IMDb plot summary: A father travels from Oklahoma to France to help his estranged daughter, who is in prison for a murder she claims she didn't commit.
Directed by Tom McCarthy. Starring Matt Damon, Camille Cottin, Abigail Breslin, and Lilou Siauvaud.

This is in many ways a familiar tale, the father coming to the rescue of his daughter, and the one thing that does stand out in a good way is Damon's performance. He doesn't seem superhumanly heroic or intelligent or good at fighting the way the men in so many of these movies do. He just seems like an average person at the end of his rope, and when he takes steps to fix things, many of them are missteps. That being said, the film itself follows a lot of familiar beats, even down to the slightly twisty ending, and Damon's performance can only go so far to elevate it. It doesn't have much new to say and stays pretty middle-of-the-road.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Stillwater < Sunday in the Park with George
Stillwater > The Polar Express
Stillwater > Dead Man Walking
Stillwater > Three Amigos
Stillwater < The Shining
Stillwater > Love Me Tonight
Stillwater > Lost in America
Stillwater > The Sandlot
Stillwater < Vanya on 42nd Street
Stillwater > Out of Africa
Stillwater < Melinda and Melinda
Final spot: #1840 out of 3447, or 47%.

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