Stillwater

Matt Damon is looking grizzled and grumpy and every one of his 51 years. He's the strong silent type and he's on his way from Oklahoma to Europe to right a wrong and kick some motherfuckin' ass, Liam Neeson style, in the name of the US of fuckin' A. Well that's what you might be expecting from this but it's not the story you're going to get. Nope, Stillwater, the new film from Tom McCarthy is a mature undertaking. It's also very very long. Like really long.

Bill Baker (Damon) has been travelling to Marseille regularly over the last four years to visit his daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin), who's been in jail all that time after being found guilty in a French court of murdering her girlfriend after a night out. She's been trying unsuccessfully to have her defence lawyer get her case looked at again but the lack of evidence is keeping everything stalled. Frustrated with the system and worried about his daughter, Bill decides to investigate his daughter's claims himself and his lack of French sees him asking his neighbour Virginie (Camille Cottin) for help with translation. As he delves deeper into the seamier side of Marseille he finds himself growing closer and closer to Virginie and her lovely daughter Maya (Lilou Siauvaud). Will an American in Provence find justice and love?

Tom McCarthy's follow up to Spotlight is two films in one. The first (kinda sorta based on the Amanda Knox case) is a pretty half hearted story about a father trying to make up for the sins of his past by fixing his daughters future. The second is the story of a man getting a second chance at life and grabbing hold of an opportunity. The second story is far superior and at points the chemistry between Bill, Virginie and Maya will make you forget all about Allison rotting away in jail. You'll get so wrapped up in it that when the film cuts to one of it's many visiting room scenes between father and daughter you'll want it to be over with so you can get back to burgeoning domestic bliss. There's warmth, fun and a surprising amount of humour here as a relationship that started as a plot device begins to feel real. And unlike the other half of the story it doesn't feel contrived. Or well, it grows out of it's contrived origins.

Those pesky plot contrivances though. When badly done they'll always take you out of a film and the big one in Stillwater will make you roll your eyes hard. A massive coincidence at a sporting event is the point where the investigation part of the story really kicks off and it's so unconvincing you'll have a hard time swallowing it. That said, that part of the story does spin off in an unexpected direction eventually but it's all wrapped up so suddenly that you get the feeling that writer's McCarthy and Thomas Bidegain were more interested in one side of the story than the other. Intertwining two stories has another side effect too, the bum numbing kind. At 140 minutes we have a running time more suited to a Marvel film than a drama and it's a rare film of any kind that needs to be this long.

Damon, not surprisingly, gets the lion's share of that running time and his everyman Bill is a solid creation, not particularly likeable at first but you'll warm to him as Virginie and Maya get him to open up. Camille Cottin as Virginie exudes warmth but it's little Lilou Siauvaud who steals the show as the football loving, burger devouring, secret keeping heart of the film. Abigail Breslin, who the entire film is ostensibly about feels forgotten about in places, only really getting to shine when she gets away from the prison visiting room. One line of hers resonates throughout, 'Life is brutal.' It can be but as you'll see in the better part of this film, it's not always.

Stillwater is out in the cinemas now everywhere.