Stillwater(2021)

Focus Features

R
Rated R for language
2h 19m

Release Date: Jul 30, 2021 | Wide

75%
72%
B-
6.6

A father travels from Oklahoma to France to help his estranged daughter, who is in prison for a murder she claims she didn't commit.

Official Website

Releases

Original Release | Jul 30, 2021

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Box Office Results

Results

Opening Weekend US & Canada:
$5,188,150
Total US & Canada:
$14,465,535
Total International
$5,288,737
Total Worldwide:
$19,754,272

Current Showtimes

orround

Thu Jun 11
Fri Jun 12
Sat Jun 13
Sun Jun 14
Mon Jun 15
Tue Jun 16
Wed Jun 17

Director & Top Cast

Tom McCarthy
Director

Lilou Siauvaud
Actor

Gallery

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United States

Language: English,French

Summaries

Plot Summary

An oil worker in Stillwater, Oklahoma named Bill Baker travels to Marseille, France to visit his daughter Allison, who is five years in to serving a nine-year prison sentence. While attending university in Marseille, Allison was convicted of killing her roommate and unfaithful lover, Lina.[6][7]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. One night at a Olympique de Marseille match, 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 learns how Bill found and captured Akim. 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, but claims that she did not intend for Lina to die. Bill stands by her, admitting that there might be some flaw in the family blood and that Stillwater looks completely different now.

Storyline

Defeated by unemployment and the ghosts of the past, Bill Baker, an unemployed oil-rig worker from Stillwater, Oklahoma, is on the ropes. However, convinced of his daughter's innocence, who has already served five long years of a nine-year prison sentence for the murder of her girlfriend, widowed Bill travels to the port city of Marseilles, France, to visit estranged Allison. Now, while confronted with an insurmountable language barrier, cross-cultural differences, and maddening legal complexity, Baker decides to take matters into his own hands to exonerate his only child after failing to get Allison's case re-opened. But, second chances are hard to come by. Can the sad-eyed father forge new bonds with his long-lost child, and in the process, let the truth shine? — Nick Riganas

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