STILLWATER
15 ★★★★
Cert
In cinemas now
The last time Matt Damon was let loose on the streets of Europe, he was cracking skulls and vaulting rooftops as amnesiac special agent Jason Bourne.
But you’ll have to abandon all your preconceptions to enjoy this unconventional crime thriller from Spotlight director Tom McCarthy.
Based extremely loosely on the story of Amanda Knox, it sees Damon’s God-fearing, baseball cap-wearing American as the world’s most useless private detective.
Five years ago, Bill’s daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin) was convicted of murdering her girlfriend while studying in the southern French port of Marseille.
In prison, Allison receives word of a young man confessing to the murder at the party. During a visit, she asks Bill to deliver a letter to her lawyer that begs for help but insists that her dad can’t be involved. “I cannot trust him with this. He’s not capable,” she writes. When the lawyer refuses to act on hearsay, Bill sets about proving his daughter right.
McCarthy cranks up the tension as the blundering American tries to crack the case on his own, trampling over local sensibilities and making a string of astonishingly stupid decisions.
But a quietly dignified Damon keeps us rooting for Bill, especially during a long detour into domestic drama as he forms a touching friendship with actress Virginie (Camille Cottin) and her sparky nine-year-old daughter Maya (Lilou Siauvaud). A slow build-up helps us buy into a tentative romance for the bohemian Frenchwoman and the roughneck American.
Meandering over 140 minutes, the melodramatic final act could come too late for those hoping for Bourne or Taken. But the patient viewer should find this a rewarding night out. Bill, a violent but essentially decent man forced to confront life’s complexities, is a very different kind of American hero.