Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Written and directed by Martin McDonaugh

As I watched Three Billboards I noticed just how much mental energy I was expending trying to figure this film out. By the end of my view I still hadn't gotten to the bottom of it but I knew I liked it. This isn't a movie you could watch once an fully appreciate and I am excited to say that I am looking forward to watching it again and I totally recommend it for anyone who appreciates superb acting across the board from an all-star cast, excellent and smooth directing, and some of the most engaging writing I've seen from movies in the past few years.

The film primarily follows Mildred Hayes (played by the stellar Frances McDormand), a working-class mother living in Ebbing, Missouri whose daughter was raped and murdered about a year before the film picks up. The police haven't made any progress with the case so Mildred rents three billboards in an attempt to shame the chief of police, William Willoughby (Woody Harrelson), into solving the murder. Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell), a member of the police department who probably tortured a prisoner, takes the billboards as a direct attack and does his best to get Mildred to take the billboards down. Along for the ride is an ensemble cast including Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea), Caleb Landry Jones (X Men: First Class), and even Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones).

If you read my brief summary or watch the trailer you will think you know where the movie is going but I promise you don't. I was kept guessing and after the completely predictable plot of Justice League I was very happy. While I haven't seen either of the director's previous two films, In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths, I have heard that his plots don't follow typical structures; they don't really follow typical movie guidelines where you learn specific pieces of information at specific times. This film follows that and while it is initially jarring I learned to appreciate it and after a few hours of mulling it over I've come to love it. 

There's a lot of funny moments in this film alongside some really dark ones and while it is a bit jarring it strangely works. While I did laugh at a lot of the humor, all of the theatre was also roaring in laughter at certain points, some of the humor didn't land with me and I'm not sure if it just wasn't funny to me or if I didn't laugh because of the at-times jarring tone. Most of it landed and only some of it did not.

The performances are nothing short of amazing. Almost everyone here is at the top of their game and I think this is probably the best work Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell have ever done. I think it was one of the two reviewers on What The Flick?! that said that the best of characters have flaws and the worst of characters have redemption and this is best encapsulated by McDormand and Rockwell, the two best actors in a film filled to the brim with excellent actors.

Mildred Hayes is a woman who lost her daughter and doesn't believe the police are not doing enough

to solve her murder. McDormand is a decorated character actress with a strong background in film (even winning an Oscar for her most recognizable leading role in the Coen brother's Fargo) and a strong foundation in theatre. She flexes all of her acting muscles to portray a character who is still in mourning, still dealing with grief but who is severely pissed off and seeking justice. She is a woman on a mission but we learn throughout the film she isn't just a two-dimensional righteous anger character, she has some serious flaws and in one specific scene you understand perhaps why she is so angry and why she is so driven to bring her daughter justice but they don't focus on it, leaving the writing and the performance to make the emotional impact and it totally works.

Officer Dixon is a racist cop who has a very checkered past. We learn early on that he was probably responsible for torturing a black man he had arrested. He's an unpleasant, dumb, and antagonistic character but we learn that he maybe isn't such a bad guy at heart, there are things in his life that don't necessarily excuse his behavior but explain it. The acting on the part of Sam Rockwell is nothing short of amazing and he gives an even better performance in this than he does in The Assassination of Jesse James, and everybody knows how much I liked him in that film. In an interview he said that he took inspiration from Barney Fife and Andy Griffith and you can definitely see that but it really works. I don't think I can say enough about how good he is but to avoid spoilers I will stop.

The rest of the cast is great with the exception of two minor supporting characters played by Lucas Hedges and Abbie Cornish. While I liked Hedges in Manchester by the Sea there were a few issues with his performance there and he isn't fantastic here but it didn't really bother me all that much, he doesn't have a large role. Abbie Cornish plays Woody Harrelson's wife and she doesn't have a large role either her accent distracted me several times; it seems like she's constantly switching between a southern, English and Australian accent. I don't think this was intentional. These two are not enough to ruin the movie but they were noticeable enough to take me out of the experience a bit.

The direction is flawless. There is a fantastic one-shot action sequence that stands out as especially great and I loved every second of it. The actors said in interviews that there was very little improvisation in the film and I was honestly shocked, so much of the actions and dialogue feels so natural. If the director's other movies are even half as good as this I think I'm going to have to check them out.

This is an absolute must-see. I have high hopes for this as an Oscar contender and if McDormand and Rockwell aren't up for best actors they will be getting snubbed. The film won best screenplay at the Venice International Film Festival and has one several other awards and I think it deserves all of that and more. This is an interesting, original, superbly acted, well written, fantastically directed stunner of a film and one you definitely should see once if not multiple times. There are a lot of awful movies coming out this time of year (Justice League, Daddy's Home 2, A Bad Moms Christmas and Jigsaw to mention just a few) but this one is well worth your time.