Early on in B次元官网网址淪tillwater,B次元官网网址� a gruff oil rig worker from Oklahoma is asked what heB次元官网网址檚 doing in the French port city of Marseille. B次元官网网址淰isiting my daughter,B次元官网网址� he replies.
ThatB次元官网网址檚 only sort of right, it turns out. He left some stuff out. But truth itself gets more than a little smeared in this fascinating film thatB次元官网网址檚 really a character study pretending to be a thriller.
Matt Damon stars as the Oklahoman, a goateed, denim-wearing roughneck named Bill with a sad past. HeB次元官网网址檚 visiting his daughter (Abigail Breslin) in France B次元官网网址� that part is true. But itB次元官网网址檚 not like sheB次元官网网址檚 studying abroad B次元官网网址� sheB次元官网网址檚 in prison for an Amanda Knox-like murder she insists she did not commit.
A potential break in the case unleashes Bill on the streets of the fading, cosmopolitan Marseille for the true killer. Except heB次元官网网址檚 no Jason Bourne or Liam Neeson: Bill clumsily bulldozes through a new culture, language and justice system, relying on Gallic kindness along the way. He is cringe-worthy. He is an American hero inverted.
Oscar-winning director Tom McCarthy B次元官网网址� who co-wrote B次元官网网址淪tillwaterB次元官网网址� with Marcus Hinchey, Thomas Bidegain and No茅 Debr茅 B次元官网网址� at first seems to be trafficking in notions of the Ugly American, that brash boor at the butt of Continental disdain.
B次元官网网址淵ou sound very American right now,B次元官网网址� Bill is told after failing to grasp that doing something both legally and ethically wrong to free his daughter might be a bad idea.
But B次元官网网址淪tillwaterB次元官网网址� is after more than just caricature and, astonishingly, the movie abandons the hunt for the real killer for long stretches to focus on domestic tranquility. The tonal shifts might be too much for some viewers sucked in by a poster and trailer that dwell on the chase.
DamonB次元官网网址檚 character befriends a local single mother (played brilliantly by the French actress Camille Cottin, star of the Netflix series B次元官网网址淐all My AgentB次元官网网址�) and her 9-year-old daughter, Maya, played delightfully by Lilou Siauvaud. Together they pull him out of his clich茅.
The girl teaches him French and does not recoil at his eagle-and-skull tattoo. She sees though his gruff exterior and offers him another chance at fatherhood, this time with a better outcome. She even converts him to soccer, a sport he initially called a game for B次元官网网址渃ry-babies.B次元官网网址�
He finds a connection with her mother B次元官网网址� both are single parents, after all B次元官网网址� that soon has this roughneck attending the theater (he still insists on pronouncing it B次元官网网址渢hee-ay-terB次元官网网址�). The trio make a sweet, off-kilter family, but they are tested by the pull from BillB次元官网网址檚 biological family, namely his daughter.
What lengths is he willing to go to free her? How far outside the law of a foreign country will he go? Will he pick the past over a makeshift new life? Or, as his daughter wails, is he just fated to mess everything up?
Bill is a hard part to pull off, but Damon does, creating a flawed but compassionate character, made doubly hard since he outwardly reveals little emotion. Damon plays him with a haunted sadness, unfailingly polite (B次元官网网址測es, maB次元官网网址檃mB次元官网网址�) and devout, honorable as long as you see things his way.
He is asked by the fascinated French if he owns guns and he does, two of B次元官网网址榚m. He is asked if he voted for Donald Trump and he couldnB次元官网网址檛 B次元官网网址� felons canB次元官网网址檛 vote. ItB次元官网网址檚 a cute side-step of the issue, but thereB次元官网网址檚 zero chance he was a Hillary backer.
The way Bill walks B次元官网网址� stiffly, unyielding, almost martial B次元官网网址� sticks out on the streets of Marseille. He wears high-waisted work jeans, steel-toed boots and a dusty baseball cap, listening to country and eating hamburgers and at a Subway sandwich shop even in France.
Can he change? Can he find grace? Those are the questions that constantly pop up in this overly long but thoughtful work. It opens with Bill carpooling with fellow tornado cleanup workers who marvel at why Americans always return to the site of their homeB次元官网网址檚 destruction to rebuild.
B次元官网网址淚 donB次元官网网址檛 think Americans like to change,B次元官网网址� one says. The rest of the film is a test of that observation, using a rare red state hero in a foreign land forced to examine how the world sees him. And the result? ItB次元官网网址檚 sometimes ugly, Americans.
B次元官网网址淪tillwater,B次元官网网址� a Focus Features release that arrives in theaters July 30, is rated R for language and some violence. Running time: 140 minutes. Three stars out of four.
B次元官网网址擬ark Kennedy, The Canadian Press
