Matt Damon is a force to be reckoned with in this film. In his tour de force performance, he stars as Bill Baker, an unemployed oil rigger who somehow scraps together the money to fly out to Marseilles to visit his daughter, Allison (the great Abigail Breslin) who is five years into her nine year prison term for a murder she swears she didn't commit. And when the French judge choices not to investigate some new 'evidence' Bill takes justice into his own hands with the help of his French neighbor Virginie (Camille Cottin) and her young daughter. And the investigate isn't easy and he has no official help and certainly makes things worse, far worse.
For a while it appears that he's forged out a good life for himself, working construction, forming a bond with young Maya (Lilou Siauvaud) and spending some time visiting his daughter. He eventually runs into the actual murderer again and handles the situation poorly, by kidnapping the young man, holding him hostile until the DNA results come in. I kept waiting for something to happen though I never would have that would be it.
By kidnapping this guy, the plot twist finally comes in. Reasonable doubt. The viewer has to believe that Allison is innocent but the murderer, Akim (Idir Azougli) says that Allison told him to kill her roommate. She later reveals that wasn't true, but her roommate was cheating on her and she wanted her out their shared apartment. However, while Virginie covers for him with the police, she kicks him out, deservingly so, but in the end, Allison is freed and able to return to the US so while some might consider this a happy end, it is also a hollow one.
While it was a slow moving film, the performances were great and I'm a sucker for a solid love story, though it didn't work out for the two likeable leads, and I also love a good third act plot twist, which this film had, and while I liked that it wasn't a thriller in the traditional Hollywood sense, I really wish that we had move of Allison's back story, but maybe they thought we'd be so familiar with Amanda Knox's story that we wouldn't need it, but I still felt that we did. The performances were brilliant and ultimately, the script was solid, all the right ingredients for a solid film, I just wished it was slightly better. Grade: B+
Side Notes:
-So Bill has a criminal record and can't vote because of it, so how is he able to own two firearms? That makes no sense to me.
-I wonder how Bill is able to get a work visa so quickly.
-Bill also prays before every meal, that is an unusual sight in any movie or TV show, but it was a nice touch.
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