Roughneck in France

The message of the new film Stillwater is summed up in a key line: “Life is brutal.”

Oklahoma oil-rig worker Bill Baker (Matt Damon) travels from Oklahoma to Marseilles to visit his young-adult daughter, who’s in jail in France, convicted of murdering her lesbian girlfriend. When she finds a new lead that might exonerate her, Bill remains in Marseilles to investigate. He meets a young French girl named Maya and her mother Virginie (Camille Cottin): The three become friends as ­Virginie helps Bill with his investigation.

Damon plays Bill’s character believably: a generous, pragmatic fixer of all things mechanical and electrical, but also a beaten-down sinner seeking justice for his family by nearly any means. Bill also possesses a dark past. The movie asks whether he can change himself.

In one scene, Bill accosts two young women in a restaurant, showing that he’s possibly willing to act uncivilly, as a brute might. Yet he shows ample kindness to Maya and Virginie, and he repeatedly prays to Jesus before each meal. Given Bill’s conflicted behavior and faith, media hype has set out to portray Stillwater as a commentary on Trump voters.

The film (rated R for vulgar language, violence, and a brief sex scene without nudity) builds complex characters and themes, but several sharp turns at the 90-minute mark serve too-sensational plot elements. Stillwater ultimately pits the possibility of personal redemption and new, unexpected friendships against the darker view that life is simply cruel.