Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
(A- or 3.5/4 stars)
Frances McDormand is dynamite as a vigilante mom who is hell bent on avenging her daughter's murder in 'Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri' (a sharp-edged crime drama with comedic undertones written & directed by Martin McDonagh, In Bruges). This excellent film about 'anger' is populated with characters that are sympathetic in their motives but unsympathetic in their actions. Mildred Hayes (McDormand) starts quite the commotion after she rents a series of 3 abandoned billboards along a lonely stretch of road outside her small, gossip-ridden town. The billboards are plastered with her 3 controversial messages: 1) RAPED WHILE DYING, 2) STILL NO ARRESTS? & 3) HOW COME, CHIEF WILLOUGHBY?
That was the horrific fate of Mildred's teen daughter Angela some 7 months ago; raped & murdered with her burnt body left along that very road. Though people in town understand Mildred's frustration with the thus-far inept investigation & lack of an arrest, this billboard stunt doesn't sit well with them, at all {backlash ensues}. Chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson, an outwardly tough guy but a softy at heart) even visits Mildred to go over the facts of the case again (no suspects, & dead end DNA evidence). Mildred staunchly argues that the police aren't doing enough, but Willoughby insists they're doing all they can. Additionally, it turns out that the revered Willoughby has stage 4 pancreatic cancer. The chief argues with Mildred that she 'could' have waited on the signs, but she counters that they wouldn't have been as effective after he "croaked" {what a sweetie!}.
Another caustic person in town is Willoughby's 2nd-in-command, Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell), an immature mama's boy with a penchant for "torturing" {according to Mildred} the black folk in town. He is an incompetent dim-witted hothead who combusts when feeling threatened. Back at home, Dixon's racist mama (creepy Sandy Martin) voices her opinions on blacks; showing how Dixon came to be the at-times violent racist he is. The movie shows us how all these main characters have come to their points of contention with themselves, each other & against the world. For Mildred, it's a flashback to the day of her daughter's (Kathryn Newton) murder. A fight broke out btwn. them and, words were spoken that could NEVER be taken back. In fact, I believe she's mostly using this quest to find her daughter's perpetrator as a way to cope with her own guilt over that fight.
Mildred was married to ex-cop Charlie (good 'ole John Hawkes), an abusive man who is now dating a 19 yr. old simpleton (Samara Weaving). He's angry as hell about the murder but, the difference btwn. he & Mildred, he says, is that he knows his actions won't bring his daughter back. All these characters say & do bad things & take their anger out regularly, but there is also a surprising goodness in most of them, as well. It's in Willoughby, who seems very frustrated that he can't bring the killer to justice. It's in Mildred, {I'm reminded of a shockingly maternal scene btwn. her & Willoughby in an interrogation room}, though her rage puts a cloud over her intentions. It's more difficult to find the goodness in Officer Dixon, whose home-grown beliefs & temper dominate his sorrowful back story.
Rockwell's performance is incredible; taking Dixon from an ineffectual cop, to a vehicle of morally-twisted rage and, ultimately, to a man who starts to see the error of his ways. Rockwell ably swerves btwn. being funny, violent, but also pathetic {when we see him living with his dependent, racist mom we start to understand that Dixon has own reasons for lashing out & treating the pool hall as a 2nd home}. His beliefs & actions may be reprehensible, but his 'redemption arc' - if you will - is effective. I loved Woody Harrelson as the town's pillar of decency who must contend with Mildred, guilt over not solving the case, as well as his own fate. I also dug Peter Dinklage as the 'local dwarf' who's sweet on Mildred; Abbie Cornish as Willoughby's bereft wife; & Lucas Hedges as Mildred's conflicted son.
Gray areas abound in all of the characters, not the least of which being Frances McDormand's Mildred; who is angry & tough, but is mostly frightened & sad; fighting personal demons and concealing a streak of sensitivity & intense vulnerability behind her vengeful bite. You know, I'm just wowed by what McDonagh brought us, here. It's part whodunit, part procedural, but mostly a character-driven drama that uses bleak humor, sparkling dialogue & complex emotions to reveal a story about anger, wrenching tragedy, karmic twists & redemption for our severely-damaged characters. 'Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri' is a thought-provoking, empathetic view of humanity at its best, its worst, & everything in between. And based on the resonant, hopeful final minutes, I'd be down for a hypothetical sequel: 'Three Billboards outside Boise, Idaho' {wink, wink}.
That was the horrific fate of Mildred's teen daughter Angela some 7 months ago; raped & murdered with her burnt body left along that very road. Though people in town understand Mildred's frustration with the thus-far inept investigation & lack of an arrest, this billboard stunt doesn't sit well with them, at all {backlash ensues}. Chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson, an outwardly tough guy but a softy at heart) even visits Mildred to go over the facts of the case again (no suspects, & dead end DNA evidence). Mildred staunchly argues that the police aren't doing enough, but Willoughby insists they're doing all they can. Additionally, it turns out that the revered Willoughby has stage 4 pancreatic cancer. The chief argues with Mildred that she 'could' have waited on the signs, but she counters that they wouldn't have been as effective after he "croaked" {what a sweetie!}.
Another caustic person in town is Willoughby's 2nd-in-command, Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell), an immature mama's boy with a penchant for "torturing" {according to Mildred} the black folk in town. He is an incompetent dim-witted hothead who combusts when feeling threatened. Back at home, Dixon's racist mama (creepy Sandy Martin) voices her opinions on blacks; showing how Dixon came to be the at-times violent racist he is. The movie shows us how all these main characters have come to their points of contention with themselves, each other & against the world. For Mildred, it's a flashback to the day of her daughter's (Kathryn Newton) murder. A fight broke out btwn. them and, words were spoken that could NEVER be taken back. In fact, I believe she's mostly using this quest to find her daughter's perpetrator as a way to cope with her own guilt over that fight.
Mildred was married to ex-cop Charlie (good 'ole John Hawkes), an abusive man who is now dating a 19 yr. old simpleton (Samara Weaving). He's angry as hell about the murder but, the difference btwn. he & Mildred, he says, is that he knows his actions won't bring his daughter back. All these characters say & do bad things & take their anger out regularly, but there is also a surprising goodness in most of them, as well. It's in Willoughby, who seems very frustrated that he can't bring the killer to justice. It's in Mildred, {I'm reminded of a shockingly maternal scene btwn. her & Willoughby in an interrogation room}, though her rage puts a cloud over her intentions. It's more difficult to find the goodness in Officer Dixon, whose home-grown beliefs & temper dominate his sorrowful back story.
Rockwell's performance is incredible; taking Dixon from an ineffectual cop, to a vehicle of morally-twisted rage and, ultimately, to a man who starts to see the error of his ways. Rockwell ably swerves btwn. being funny, violent, but also pathetic {when we see him living with his dependent, racist mom we start to understand that Dixon has own reasons for lashing out & treating the pool hall as a 2nd home}. His beliefs & actions may be reprehensible, but his 'redemption arc' - if you will - is effective. I loved Woody Harrelson as the town's pillar of decency who must contend with Mildred, guilt over not solving the case, as well as his own fate. I also dug Peter Dinklage as the 'local dwarf' who's sweet on Mildred; Abbie Cornish as Willoughby's bereft wife; & Lucas Hedges as Mildred's conflicted son.
Gray areas abound in all of the characters, not the least of which being Frances McDormand's Mildred; who is angry & tough, but is mostly frightened & sad; fighting personal demons and concealing a streak of sensitivity & intense vulnerability behind her vengeful bite. You know, I'm just wowed by what McDonagh brought us, here. It's part whodunit, part procedural, but mostly a character-driven drama that uses bleak humor, sparkling dialogue & complex emotions to reveal a story about anger, wrenching tragedy, karmic twists & redemption for our severely-damaged characters. 'Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri' is a thought-provoking, empathetic view of humanity at its best, its worst, & everything in between. And based on the resonant, hopeful final minutes, I'd be down for a hypothetical sequel: 'Three Billboards outside Boise, Idaho' {wink, wink}.