Stillwater on M6: Matt Damon and Camille Cottin in a true-false thriller from Marseille (review)

Tom McCarthy directs Damon and a stunning Camille Cottin in a film that struggles to achieve its objectives.

Stillwater returns this Friday evening on television on M6. Despite some flaws, Tom McCarthy’s film holds up thanks to the performance of the Matt Damon-Camille Cottin duo. Our review:

Presented yesterday out of competition at Cannes, Stillwater is a strange hybrid project, straddling Hollywood and France: co-written by Thomas Bidegain and Noé Debré, the film is directed by Tom McCarthy (Spotlight), was largely filmed in Marseille and is played by Matt Damon and Camille Cottin. The story of Bill Baker (Damon), an oil driller from the depths of Oklahoma, who settles in the Marseille city to try to exonerate his daughter (Abigail Breslin), accused of a murder that she denies having committed. Blocked by the language barrier, he asks Virginie (Cottin) and her young daughter for help with the translation, with whom he becomes friends.