The new drama, Stillwater, from Focus Features, is one of those seemingly off-putting films that initially feels as though it hasn’t got anything substantial to say, but there is something at work just beneath the surface of the film that lingers long after the last reel has run. This is a film that, if allowed to simmer, eventually rewards you with not only a fine performance from an excellent actor, but a thinking piece on the harm that the lack of communication can cause any two people in any given relationship or situation.

The film tells the saga of Bill (Matt Damon), an Oklahoma oil-rig worker travelling to Mareseille, France to visit his estranged daughter, Allison (Abigail Breslin), who is serving time in prison for a crime she claims not to have committed. Wanting desperately to gain his daughter’s trust and prove his worth to her, Bill relays...