In 'Stillwater,' Matt Damon bridges Oklahoma and France

The set-up of Tom McCarthy's “Stillwater” sounds very Liam Neeson

CANNES, France -- The set-up of Tom McCarthy’s “Stillwater” sounds very Liam Neeson. Matt Damon stars as a tough, terse Oklahoma father who travels to Marseille, France, to visit his jailed daughter (Abigail Breslin), who has been imprisoned for her role in a scandalous Amanda Knox-styled murder case. Damon, a gruff, working-class roughneck, sticks around to seek justice for his daughter and find a mystery man who may have been the real killer. McCarthy, the director of “Spotlight,” “Win Win” and “The Station Agent,” had long pursued Damon for one of his movies. In “Stillwater,” he knew audiences would come in expecting Damon as a quintessentially American hero. “I have a very specific set of skills,” Damon, doing his most gravelly Neeson, jokes while sitting alongside McCarthy in an interview.