--- title: "Stillwater" year: 2021 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/stillwater" fi1m_id: "stillwater" imdb_id: "tt10696896" tmdb_id: 616651 wikidata_id: "Q74586939" fi1m_score: 56 critics_score: 54 critics_reviews: 21 published: "2026-10-09T19:29:31.481457+00:00" updated: "2026-10-09T19:29:44.208595+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Stillwater (2021) Directed by Tom McCarthy · 2h 19m · MPA R · Drama, Crime, Thriller ## Identity Stillwater - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/stillwater - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** stillwater - **IMDb ID:** tt10696896 - **TMDB ID:** 616651 - **Wikidata ID:** Q74586939 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10696896/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/616651, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q74586939 **Fi1m score: 56** · Critics 54 from 21 reviews *In a sentence:* An Oklahoma roughneck learns French from a child; the murder case keeps interrupting the lessons > Tom McCarthy has made a patient film about an Oklahoma labourer learning to be a father in a Marseille flat, and bolted it to a murder plot that keeps breaking in. The middle hour is worth having; the last half hour undoes much of it. ## Synopsis Bill Baker (Matt Damon) clears storm wreckage and works demolition in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and flies to Marseille every few months to visit his daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin), five years into a prison sentence for the murder of her girlfriend Lina. Allison says she did not do it. On this visit she hands him a letter for her lawyer, Leparq (Anne Le Ny), naming a young man called Akim (Idir Azougli) who was overheard at a party admitting to the killing. Leparq will not reopen the case. Bill, who speaks no French and has let Allison down before, decides to stay and look for Akim himself. He is helped by Virginie (Camille Cottin), an actress staying at his hotel, and her small daughter Maya (Lilou Siauvaud), who takes to him faster than her mother does. ## Review Bill Baker (Matt Damon) clears storm wreckage in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and has a daughter in a prison in Marseille. Tom McCarthy’s film follows him across the Atlantic with a letter in his pocket and lets him stay, and for a long stretch it is a careful, decent picture about a man who failed at being a father getting a second attempt with somebody else’s child. It is also a murder mystery, because that is what brought him there, and the two halves never agree on which is in charge. At 139 minutes there is room for both, and that is part of the trouble. Damon plays Bill as a closed box. Karen Muller Serreau puts him in a work shirt, jeans and a cap he rarely takes off, and he wears them through lawyers’ offices, prison visiting rooms and a child’s bedroom without once looking as if he has considered changing. He says grace over fast food. He answers questions with “yes, ma’am”. When Virginie’s friends ask over dinner whether he voted for Trump, he says he could not, having a record, and the film lets the silence afterwards do the work. It is an unshowy piece of acting, and the film is at its best when it stands back and lets him be tired. The middle hour is the reason to watch. Virginie (Camille Cottin), an actress with a small daughter, Maya (Lilou Siauvaud), first translates for Bill and then, somewhat to her own surprise, takes him in. Philip Messina gives them a cramped flat with a balcony over the street, and Masanobu Takayanagi shoots the city in hard white daylight, the port, the hills, the tower blocks, so that it looks like a place people live rather than a postcard. We were moved more than we expected by the smallest things in these scenes: Maya correcting his French across a table, Bill carrying her on his shoulders through a football crowd, Cottin watching the pair of them with a face that has not yet decided what it thinks. Nothing much happens in this hour, and it is the best writing in the film. The thriller is less sure of itself. Allison (Abigail Breslin), five years into a sentence for killing her girlfriend Lina, gives her father the name of a young man, Akim (Idir Azougli), and Bill goes looking for him through the estates on the north side of the city with the help of a former detective, Dirosa (Moussa Maaskri). McCarthy stages these errands flatly, a man asking questions in a language he does not speak and being told to go away. That is honest, and it is also dull, and Tom McArdle’s cutting does not hurry it. Breslin is good in the visiting-room scenes, furious and ashamed in equal measure, but the film keeps her behind glass for most of its length. Then the last act arrives and the murder plot, which had been dozing, wakes up and takes over. We will not describe the turns. We can say that we came out feeling we had been had, and that the reason is not the turns themselves but the man taking them: the Bill the film spent an hour and a half building would not, we think, do several of the things he does in the last thirty minutes, and the script (four writers are credited: McCarthy, Thomas Bidegain, Noé Debré and Marcus Hinchey) does not make the case that he would. Mychael Danna’s score, sparing until then, starts to lean on the scenes, which is usually a sign a film knows it is asking too much. McCarthy has done this kind of thing before and done it better. *The Visitor* (2007) was also about a shut-down American man opened up by strangers, and it trusted that to be enough. [*Spotlight*](https://film.one/film/spotlight) (2015) showed he could run a procedural without a wasted scene. *Stillwater* is what happens when the two instincts share a film and neither will give way. Most critics have landed in the middle on this one, and so do we. See it for Damon, Cottin and Siauvaud at a kitchen table, and for a Marseille that looks like itself. The 15 certificate is for a handful of hard scenes; the long gentle stretch between them is weeknight viewing, and the last half hour is the sort you argue about afterwards, which may be the most useful thing we can tell you about it. *Fi1m score 56, published 9 October 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics come down somewhere in the middle, and even the warmer reviews describe the film as a strained or uneven mix of crime thriller and family drama. Where they agree is on the quieter material: the praise clusters around Matt Damon’s restrained, unshowy performance as a stubborn father, and around the warmth he builds with Camille Cottin and Lilou Siauvaud in the long domestic stretch in Marseille. Several reviews call the film affecting in spite of itself. The reservations cluster on the plot. Critics across the range find the return to the murder case contrived, the final-act turns hard to credit and the whole thing too long. The spread is wide, from B grades to outright pans. The Guardian finds Damon miscast and says the film never reckons with his character’s violence; Paste finds him bland; HeyUGuys thinks Cottin is the only performer who shines. The performance most critics rate is also the one the dissenters single out. ## Straight answers **Is Stillwater worth watching?** *Stillwater* is worth watching for the middle hour, in which Matt Damon's Oklahoma labourer learns French from a small girl in a Marseille flat, and we scored it 56. The murder plot that brought him there is flat for most of the film and then takes over the last half hour in ways the character does not earn. See it for Damon, Camille Cottin and Lilou Siauvaud at a kitchen table, not for the mystery. **How long is Stillwater, and what is it rated?** *Stillwater* runs 2h 19m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a drama and crime film. **Where can I watch Stillwater in the US?** *Stillwater* is streaming on Amazon Prime Video in the US, and it is also available to rent from Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video from $3.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is Stillwater, and is it suitable for children?** *Stillwater* is a 15 in the UK and an R in the United States, and it is not suitable for children. The certificate is for a handful of hard scenes, mostly in the last half hour, when the murder plot comes back; the long gentle stretch between them, a man minding a child in a cramped flat, is mild weeknight viewing. Older teenagers would manage it; the squeamish should be ready for the ending. **How does Stillwater compare to A Prophet?** *Stillwater* and [*A Prophet*](https://film.one/film/a-prophet) share a writer, Thomas Bidegain, and a French prison, and *A Prophet* is the better film by some distance. Audiard's picture is gripping and brutal and keeps its nerve to the end; McCarthy's is gentlest and best away from the prison, and loses its way when the crime plot takes charge. Choose *A Prophet* for a thriller, *Stillwater* for a quiet study of a tired man and a child. **What should I watch after Stillwater?** After *Stillwater*, try [*A Prophet*](https://film.one/film/a-prophet) (2009, Fi1m 86): Co-written by Thomas Bidegain; a French prison picture with the nerve this one lacks. Then [*Missing*](https://film.one/film/missing-1982) (1982, Fi1m 80): Jack Lemmon as an American father searching abroad for his child, and learning things; and [*Prisoners*](https://film.one/film/prisoners) (2013, Fi1m 81): A father goes outside the law for his daughter, and the film makes him pay for it. ### Reviews we read (21) - **The AV Club**, Jesse Hassenger (B): Hassenger finds the film an oddly compelling, knotted blend of thriller and found-family drama, despite some awkwardness and length. He praises its prickly use of audience sympathy to make Bill’s regrets about his parental shortcomings resonate. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/matt-damon-fights-for-his-daughter-in-stillwater-an-un-1847375550) - **IndieWire**, David Ehrlich (B-): Ehrlich finds the film strained but strangely affecting, with an unexpectedly forceful ending. He praises Matt Damon’s quiet softness and the warmth of the makeshift family at the story’s center. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/stillwater-review-matt-damon-1234649672/) - **Variety**, Peter Debruge (70/100, inferred): Debruge finds the film thoughtful and rewarding, though its extended domestic passages may test viewers expecting a more conventional crime thriller. He praises its character-focused scenes for challenging assumptions about how Americans are seen abroad. [Read](https://variety.com/2021/film/reviews/stillwater-review-matt-damon-1235014926/) - **Vulture**, Alison Willmore (70/100, inferred): Willmore finds the film ambitious and engrossing, though its return to crime-thriller plot feels artificial after a more delicate domestic stretch. She particularly praises Matt Damon’s deft, unshowy performance as a stubborn father whose humanity the film takes seriously. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/stillwater-movie-review-matt-damon-is-an-unlovable-american.html) - **Empire**, Ian Freer (68/100, inferred): Freer finds the film entertaining and worthwhile despite its overlong, uneven blend of thriller and relationship drama. He especially praises the warm chemistry between Damon, Cottin, and Siauvaud. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/stillwater/) - **Screen Daily**, Tim Grierson (64/100, inferred): The page identifies this as a Cannes review, but the review text is behind a paywall. Its verdict and any specific praise or complaint cannot be determined from the accessible content. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/stillwater-cannes-review/5161408.article) - **Radio Times**, Trevor Johnston (3/5): The review takes a character-focused approach to a story that could have been a slam-bang action film. It highlights Matt Damon’s gung-ho father as a particular point of interest, while suggesting he must temper that attitude to help his daughter. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-bd2lll/stillwater/) - **Time Out**, Hanna Flint (3/5): Flint finds it an engaging, often compelling family drama. She singles out Matt Damon’s fight for his daughter’s future as its central strength. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/stillwater-2021) - **Total Film**, Neil Smith (3/5): The review finds the drama compelling but increasingly strained by plot turns that test credibility. It praises Matt Damon’s sturdy performance for holding the film together, while noting Abigail Breslin’s impressive work. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/stillwater-review-matt-damon/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Justin Chang (55/100, inferred): Chang finds the film intelligent and moving, but says its contrivances and compromises are hard to accept fully. He praises the warmth between the actors and the humanity in the film’s quieter passages. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2021-07-09/stillwater-review-matt-damon-abigail-breslin) - **Slant Magazine**, Derek Smith (2/4): The review argues that the film’s contrived final-act twists derail an already overstuffed story and leave its message hollow. It praises the believable, understated rapport between Matt Damon and Camille Cottin, along with the cross-cultural clashes their relationship brings out. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/stillwater-review-matt-damon-tom-mccarthy/) - **The New York Times**, Manohla Dargis (50/100, inferred): Dargis gives the film a mixed verdict, finding its ambitions more compelling than its execution. She singles out the performances and the film’s attempt to complicate its crime-story premise. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/movies/stillwater-review.html) - **Sight and Sound**, BFI (45/100, inferred): The review finds the film ambitious and engaging but ultimately uneven, with its story strands failing to cohere. It praises Matt Damon’s restrained performance for conveying how repeated failure can fuel resentment. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/stillwater-matt-damon-marseille-jailed-daughter) - **Little White Lies**, Hannah Strong (35/100, inferred): Strong finds the film unfocused and disappointing, though oddly compelling. She praises its intriguing exploration of white female fragility and white male violence, while faulting the film for treating that idea as an afterthought. [Read](https://lwlies.com/festivals/stillwater-cannes-film-festival-review) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney (35/100, inferred): Rooney finds the film uneven, sluggish and predictable, with its clumsy murder plot undermining its potential. He praises Camille Cottin’s performance and the quietly moving chemistry between Damon and Cottin. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/stillwater-cannes-2021-1234979662/) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (1/5): Bradshaw finds the film muddled, tonally misjudged, and deeply flawed. He singles out Matt Damon’s miscasting and the story’s failure to reckon with its protagonist’s violence. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/jul/09/stillwater-review-amanda-knox-matt-damon) - **/Film**, Hoai-Tran Bui (7/10): The review finds the film flawed but disarmingly affecting, despite a jarring ending and baggy structure. It especially praises Matt Damon’s nuanced central performance and the film’s quieter found-family drama. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/582997/stillwater-review-emotions-run-deep-in-the-surprising-matt-damon-blue-collar-crime-drama/) - **The Wrap** (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the film an ambitious, uneven blend of thriller and intimate character drama, but applauds McCarthy’s willingness to attempt the fusion. They especially praise the film’s Marseille setting and the gentle bond between Bill and Maya. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/stillwater-film-review-tom-mccarthy-matt-damon/) - **Eye for Film**, Amber Wilkinson (55/100, inferred): Wilkinson finds the slow-moving drama compelling but uneven, with its thriller elements disrupting the character-driven story. She praises the convincing performances and especially Lilou Siavaud’s heartfelt work as Maya. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/stillwater-2021-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson) - **Paste**, Isaac Feldberg (2.1/10): Feldberg pans the film as muddled, flat-footed schmaltz that mishandles its characters and themes. He particularly criticizes Matt Damon’s bland performance and the script’s jarring tonal shifts. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/matt-damon/stillwater-review) - **HeyUGuys**, Jo-Ann Titmarsh (10/100, inferred): Titmarsh finds the film a major disappointment and criticizes its stagnant storytelling. She singles out Camille Cottin as the only performer who shines. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/stillwater-review/) ## Details - **Director:** Tom McCarthy - **Director:** Tom McCarthy - **Writer:** Marcus Hinchey, Tom McCarthy, Noé Debré, Thomas Bidegain - **Cinematography:** Masanobu Takayanagi - **Editor:** Tom McArdle - **Music:** Mychael Danna - **Production design:** Philip Messina - **Costume design:** Karen Muller Serreau - **Producer:** Liza Chasin, Tom McCarthy, Steve Golin - **Cast:** Matt Damon as Bill Baker; Camille Cottin as Virginie; Abigail Breslin as Allison; Lilou Siauvaud as Maya; Deanna Dunagan as Sharon; Moussa Maaskri as Dirosa; Anne Le Ny as Leparq; Idir Azougli as Akim - **Runtime:** 2h 19m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 30 July 2021 - **Genres:** Drama, Crime, Thriller - **Budget:** $20 million - **Box office:** $20 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cq1lPPeMUY ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: free, uhd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, uhd - Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, uhd *Checked 2026-10-09.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, HK, HU, IE, IT, JP, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, SE, SG, TH, UA, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *The Visitor* (2007): McCarthy’s earlier film about a closed-off American and the strangers who open him up. - *A Prophet* (2009), Fi1m 86: Co-written by Thomas Bidegain; a French prison picture with the nerve this one lacks. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/a-prophet.md) - *Transit* (2018): Another stranded foreigner in Marseille, in a film that knows exactly what it is. - *Missing* (1982), Fi1m 80: Jack Lemmon as an American father searching abroad for his child, and learning things. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/missing-1982.md) - *Prisoners* (2013), Fi1m 81: A father goes outside the law for his daughter, and the film makes him pay for it. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/prisoners.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/stillwater