Critics reviews

A thoughtful, knotty character study, albeit one nestled inside a polished, and less interesting, action thriller.

McCarthy keeps dragging the film away from thriller and procedural territory and back to this blossoming domestic setup – but while Damon and the kid share some cute scenes, it simply isn’t that interesting, and all the would-be colour adds nothing but extraneous detail.

[The film] would be more openly ridiculous, feel far more manipulative, if not for Damon’s performance... "Stillwater" depends on precisely that matrix of actorly skill and unvarnished likability; Damon’s other magic trick is removing all signs of the strings holding the performance together, like he’s his own CGI wizard, his own best special effect.

"Stillwater" takes an unsettling left-hand turn into darkness; the story becomes unpleasantly bitter and asks us to buy certain behaviors that don’t make much sense, and that we’re not quite sure a character would be capable of. Yet even after the movie makes that sharp zigzag, its one constant is Damon, who’s turning out to be one of those great, casual American actors we didn’t know we had anymore... It’s a terrific performance, an adamant yes in a movie that’s sometimes a non.

"Stillwater" mashes up quest-for-justice, father-daughter dramatics, fortysomething romance and mid-life introspection for a refreshingly adult drama. It doesn’t coalesce completely, but Damon and Cottin keep it engaging.

While ["Stillwater"] has some of the sober fact-finding of ["Spotlight"], it is more reminiscent of earlier McCarthy works such as "Win Win" and "The Visitor"—subtle, well-acted character dramas that take surprising narrative turns... "Stillwater" is a mainstream work that contradicts preconceived notions, and is all the more fascinating for it.

["Stillwater"] feels like [the film McCarthy] has spent his career preparing for — an enthralling, exasperating, and, above all else, ambitious affair that doesn’t soften or demand sympathy for its difficult main character but does insist on according him his full humanity.

Though scattered individual scenes are compelling, as a whole [the film] feels too torn between what it’s ostensibly about and what it actually ends up focusing on. The story wraps up on a note that’s surprisingly meditative and cogent thematically, and in a better movie it would be genuinely thought-provoking. In this state, however, Stillwater leaves you thinking mostly about missed potential.

“Stillwater” is nigh impossible to pin down, taking the broad contours of a stoic-dad-who’ll-stop-at-nothing-to save-his-daughter thriller and subverting them, filling them with so much texture, humor and emotional attention that the film ends up more closely resembling “Jerry Maguire” than it does “Taken.”

McCarthy isn’t an intuitive or innovative filmmaker and, like a lot of actors turned directors, he’s more adept at working with performers than telling a story visually... [Matt Damon's] a committed performance, but it’s also a frustratingly flat one. Less character than conceit, Bill isn’t a specific father and uneasy American abroad; he’s a symbol.

Give McCarthy credit for building a movie around a flawed protagonist and his search for redemption, and Damon for wholeheartedly sinking himself into a role that avoids the usual heroic cliches. Ultimately, though, "Stillwater" runs long but doesn't run particularly deep -- or at least, not quite deep enough.

Damon turns in one of the finest performances of his career... even when the story comes close to flying off the rails, [he] holds steady and commands the screen.