A good ending saves an otherwise messy film
The synopsis for 'Stillwater' reads: 'A weekend camping trip among six old friends in Northern Minnesota's "Boundary Waters" turns tragic after one dies under mysterious circumstances, triggering further turmoil as they attempt to unmask the killer within their own group.' Not often these days I'll watch a film with no actors or film makers behind the scenes that I know, but that plot was just too tempting for me to turn down. I quickly checked out the first 15 seconds of the trailer and decided it was made with enough quality to be watchable even if it wasn't as good as I had hoped. So was it everything I wished for? Not quite.
The film has a lot of flaws. Some of the writing is shotty to say the least. A lot of moments of dialogue are just bizarre and completely out of place. Also the characters were not unique enough. It was tough to keep them separated in your mind, which isn't ideal in a whodunnit type film. Then there were the emo characters. Whoever had the idea to include them in the film needs to take a good hard look in the mirror. It was a bizarre choice. A film set in the middle of the woods, with three emos seemingly being the most comfortable ones out there? Not in this lifetime.
The film also gets off to a very slow start and frankly the pacing throughout was less than desirable. The film really feels like it's dragging up until about the final ten minutes. There's also a scene that was put there almost entirely so that one of the actors had a reason to take his clothes off and show off his body. The 'test' done in this scene also made zero sense and held almost no logic when you think about it for the briefest second.
So why after all this did I give the film a '6' you ask? Fair question. The answer is that I'm a sucker for a good ending. I can honestly say first of all that I did not pick it. It hid itself very well. Secondly, it's almost the most logical part of the film in a way. That's not to say it entirely makes reasonable sense, but I can at least sort of see it happening. 'Stillwater' is a tough watch that is made partially bearable by a decent ending. If that sounds like something you'd like to buy into then this one is for you. If you're more about the journey than the destination then probably give this one a miss.
The film has a lot of flaws. Some of the writing is shotty to say the least. A lot of moments of dialogue are just bizarre and completely out of place. Also the characters were not unique enough. It was tough to keep them separated in your mind, which isn't ideal in a whodunnit type film. Then there were the emo characters. Whoever had the idea to include them in the film needs to take a good hard look in the mirror. It was a bizarre choice. A film set in the middle of the woods, with three emos seemingly being the most comfortable ones out there? Not in this lifetime.
The film also gets off to a very slow start and frankly the pacing throughout was less than desirable. The film really feels like it's dragging up until about the final ten minutes. There's also a scene that was put there almost entirely so that one of the actors had a reason to take his clothes off and show off his body. The 'test' done in this scene also made zero sense and held almost no logic when you think about it for the briefest second.
So why after all this did I give the film a '6' you ask? Fair question. The answer is that I'm a sucker for a good ending. I can honestly say first of all that I did not pick it. It hid itself very well. Secondly, it's almost the most logical part of the film in a way. That's not to say it entirely makes reasonable sense, but I can at least sort of see it happening. 'Stillwater' is a tough watch that is made partially bearable by a decent ending. If that sounds like something you'd like to buy into then this one is for you. If you're more about the journey than the destination then probably give this one a miss.
- jtindahouse
- Mar 12, 2018