Stillwater Parent Guide

For the past four years, oil patch roughneck and construction worker Bill Baker (Matt Damon) of Stillwater, Oklahoma has been flying to Marseilles. This isn’t a vacation, though: He goes to visit his daughter, Allison (Abigail Breslin), who has been in prison there for the murder of her roommate while she was a student. Although Bill is certain of her innocence, the French justice system has long finished with the case, and her odds of early release are low. But when Allison slips him a letter with a lead on a potential suspect, Bill begins to hope…until their lawyer dismisses the evidence outright. If Bill wants this investigated, he’s going to have to do it himself – which is going to be nearly impossible, as he doesn’t speak French. Fortunately for him, he meets Virginie (Camille Cottin) and her daughter Maya (Lilou Siauvaud), Virginie is willing to translate for him in return for some help around her ramshackle apartment.

I have two big issues with this movie. The first is that it’s nearly two and a half hours long. Movie runtime is like dog years, so two and a half hours on screen is like two months outside. The pacing suffers as a result, with a notable lull about two thirds of the way in. For those of you not watching the film as part of your job, you can consider this a thoughtful intermission, during which time you could nap, go to the bathroom, and/or grab a snack – depending on how long you plan to nap.

The second problem is that this is very clearly based on the story of Amanda Knox, who has publicly condemned the film for cashing in on her life. While I don’t think she has exclusive rights to a wrongful conviction story, this one is remarkably similar, and I can absolutely see why she would be upset about it. I’d be downright livid if someone used the worst moment of my life to make a quick buck, and unless you’re a much calmer person than most, you would be too.

Those problems aside for the moment, this movie is much better than I had feared. From the trailer, I was expecting two-plus hours of “rah-rah America”, in which Matt Damon goes to some godless European city and teaches them how things are done in the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma. That’s thankfully not what happens. While the cultural differences between Oklahoma and Marseilles certainly come up, they are by no means the focus of the film. This is a movie about how our choices affect not only ourselves but our relationships with the people around us. It’s surprisingly restrained in that regard – most of the time, anyway.

If you’re planning on seeing this despite the unholy runtime, you ought to know what’s in it. The biggest issue is profanity, and between French and English cussing you end up with just under 30 f-bombs – although since they’re spread over roughly a week, it could have been worse. There are also some scenes depicting hand-to-hand violence, references to suicide, and fairly frequent drinking and smoking. But after all, this is France, and where would France be without wine and cigarettes? I guess you’d still have croissants…