Pretty much an endurance test from frame one, Stillwater follows Andrew Morrison (played by Andrew Hulse, who has enough passing resemblance to Quentin Tarantino that I was surprised that the phrase “dead nigger storage” was never uttered), a 26-year-old college graduate with a stack of college loan bills, a box containing his own adoption papers and a watch with the name Roxy Gaines inscribed on the back. The revelation of his adoption stresses the already thin relationship between Andrew and his adoptive parents, who are simply there to demand that Andrew mow the lawn, get his diploma framed, be less than 10 years older than their son, and to allude to the recent death of a local college student.

Unwilling to breach the subject with his adoptive parents, little orphan Andy goes to a private detective who manages to track down Andrew’s birth mother, Julia. Andrew writes a heartfelt letter to his mother and she responds in a quick and fashionable manner by blowing her brains out at the kitchen table, which is a response that never goes out of style as far as I’m concerned. The news reaches Andrew, who goes to his newly ex-mother’s apartment and finds Susan Becker, the social worker who was taking care of the mentally unstable Julia. Andrew has to sort through his mother’s belongings and goes about cleaning her apartment, finding a holy bible with a phone number and the name Christer James.

From then on, it’s a game of “are you my daddy?” telephone as Andrew jumps from person to person, trying to find his real father for information on his background and an explanation why his birth mother killed herself. Faster than you can say “I paid attention to the first scene with the dead girl, and now I’m waiting for the shoe to drop,” Detective Lofton shows up to announce that Andrew’s mother was tied to Noah Whitman, a man who is wanted as a suspect in the dead girl's murder.

Andrew is quick to come apart. His paranoia increases as he resists confronting his adoptive parents, which leads to outbursts at the dinner table during discussions of grass mowing and diploma framing. He continues his journey of self-discovery as he tries to uncover his birth parents’ past, questioning if genetics could have any bearing on his view of the world, and his growing insanity.

Nope. I can’t say I enjoyed Stillwater all that much. Sure, the film manages to squeeze out a decent collection of visually exciting scenes about a man slowly losing his grip on reality while not ripping off Requiem For A Dream (Ray, I’m lookin’ at your blind ass). The film’s weakest point is certainly the script. Of course “the script” is a pretty general term that can describe the story, characters, dialogue, et cetera, so let’s bring up a few very specific problems.

First is the problem of the story itself. Yes, there are many good films where a character goes through personal change during a great deal of introspection, but Stillwater just doesn’t do it very well. We never get a feel for who Andrew is outside of the basics. There’s simply not much in the way of back story; his entire existence in the film is to find out about his birth parents. But without a back story (or much story at all) to go along with quiet and introverted Andrew, you’re not allowed to get into his head, which makes the film unravel after about 20 minutes. That wouldn't be so bad if this was a 19-minute short film, but Stillwater runs 90 minutes.

Andrew isn’t the only problem character in the film, either. Most of the characters are bland and purposeless. I know this is Andrew’s story and everything, but some of the choices made here are quite baffling. Take the social worker, Susan Becker, for example. She seems to show up as a possible love interest for Andrew. She comes, she goes ... and nothing. Then there’s Andrew’s boss down at the local Goodwill. Apparently the actor improvised and what’s inserted into the film is pointless and tonally off as he rambles on and on about Caller ID and vintage lamps. If that wasn’t enough, when more than five minutes of time is dedicated to extra characters they start to grate on the nerves. Andrew’s adoptive parents are a perfect example of such grating supporting roles. There’s a difference between “quirky” and “obnoxious.”

Stillwater ultimately comes off as disappointing. There’s a decent amount of technical work going on in the film, but without a strong script there’s not much to recommend. Sure it looks good, but that’s not enough.

Presentation
On the video side, despite being one of the more recent films I’ve seen from Synapse, Stillwater seems a bit lackluster. There is a constant amount of grain (especially during night scenes, which manages to outgrain many of Synapse’s releases from the early to mid ‘70s!), a generally soft picture, and quite a bit of minor print damage throughout the film. Was it the original source material? Was some of the grain intentional? Synapse usually puts out decent transfers, but Stillwater is pretty ugly. At least the color balance seems accurate. The audio fares a bit better, with a 5.1 surround sound track that manages to sneak in enough intentionally static-y sound effects that Synapse included a note in the liner notes suggesting that your speakers aren’t broken. It’s not overly active, but it’s nice and atmospheric.

Extras
I have to admit that I felt like a complete moron after my initial viewing of Stillwater. There was a feeling that maybe I was simply too stupid to understand the film and that I had missed plot points along the way, but after listening to the audio commentary featuring director Adrian Kays, cinematographer Lyn Moncrief and main actor Andrew Hulse, I’m not so sure that was the case. I’m not quite certain if it was intentional or not, but very little is said about the story or characters in the film; the commentary is more of a reflection on the making of the film itself. It’s a decent enough track if you want to hear the guys talk about how hot it was outdoors, but if you’re looking for answers to the ambiguous plot, you’re out of luck.

Other than that, you’ve got a production still gallery, a director biography, and a trailer for the film. Nothing too exciting.

Overall
I don’t want to outright bash Stillwater because the film didn’t anger me enough to be angry about it. The best I can say about the movie is that it left me feeling apathetic. Sure it’s got a few stylish scenes, but they’re not going to cover up the paper-thin characters or the convoluted plot.