Stillwater is a 2021 American crime drama film directed by Tom McCarthy, based on a script he co-wrote with Marcus Hinchey, Thomas Bidegain and NoΓ© DebrΓ©. It stars Matt Damon as an unemployed oil-rig worker from Oklahoma who sets out with a French woman (Camille Cottin) to prove his convicted daughter s (Abigail Breslin) innocence.
The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on July 8, 2021, and was released theatrically in the United States on July 30, 2021 by Focus Features. It received generally positive reviews from critics.
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An oil worker in Stillwater, Oklahoma named Bill Baker travels to Marseille, France to visit his daughter Allison, who is five years into serving a nine-year prison sentence. While attending university in Marseille, Allison was convicted of killing her roommate and unfaithful lover, Lina.
During Bill s first meeting with Allison, she asks him to pass a note to her defense lawyer, Mme. Leparq. Bill finds Leparq, who tells him that the letter says that Allison heard from her former professor about a man who claimed to be Lina s killer. Leparq refuses to attempt to reopen the case because the new information is just hearsay. Bill lies to Allison, telling her that Leparq will petition the judge to reopen the case.
Bill meets a woman named Virginie and her daughter Maya at his hotel. He asks Virginie to translate the note. Bill visits the professor mentioned in the note, who gives him the phone number of someone who claims to know Lina s killer. Bill and Virginie meet with the woman, who names the killer as Akim.
Combing through social media, Virginie and her friend print photos of people in the social circles of Allison and Lina. Bill brings the photos to Allison, who identifies Akim. Bill then uses the photo to track down Akim at a housing project, but is beaten by Akim s friends while Akim escapes. The next time that he meets Allison, Bill confesses that he lied about Leparq agreeing to help and that he found Akim but didn t tell the police. Enraged that Bill squandered her one chance for exoneration, Allison tells him to never return to the prison.
Four months later, Bill has remained in Marseille, renting a room in Virginie’s apartment and working on a construction crew. During Allison s one free day out of prison that year, Bill reconnects with her, and their regular visits continue. Bill and Virginie also establish a relationship. One night at a Olympique de Marseille match with Maya, Bill spots Akim and follows him in his truck after the match. Bill approaches Akim, slugs him and locks him in the basement of the apartment building where Virginie, Maya and Bill live. Bill implores Maya to keep the secret.
Bill pays a private investigator to have a lock of Akim s hair tested against the crime scene s DNA evidence. Akim tells Bill that Allison had hired him to kill Lina and that she paid him with a gold necklace bearing the word "Stillwater." Bill begins to doubt Allison’s innocence. The private investigator suspects that Bill is keeping Akim in the basement, so he poses as a building inspector and asks Virginie if she has noticed any smells or noises from the basement, which she denies, but her suspicions are raised. Police officers find and detain Bill, but after a fruitless search of the basement, the police question Maya, who lies about not having seen the hostage. After the police leave, Virginie reveals that she had released Akim after finding him in the basement. She demands that Bill move out for having put Maya at risk during Akim s abduction.
Leparq meets with Bill to tell him that a DNA test has exonerated Allison, but Bill s numb reaction perplexes Leparq.
After Allison and Bill return to Oklahoma to a hero s welcome, Bill asks Allison about the Stillwater necklace that he gave her when she had departed for Marseille. Allison breaks down and admits she hired Akim to evict Lina from their house after they had broken up, but claims that she did not intend for Lina to die, Akim having misunderstood her intentions to "make her go out" due to her then-poor grasp of the French language. The next morning as they sit on the porch, Allison says everything looks the same in Stillwater while Bill admits everything looks different to him.
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