Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri review

Film information:

Cast: Frances McDormand (Fargo, Burn After Reading, Madagascar 3, The Good Dinosaur), Woody Harrleson (The Hunger Games and Now You See Me franchises), Sam Rockwell (Moon, Iron Man 2), Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea, Lady Bird), Peter Dinklage (X-Men: Days of Future Past), Caleb Landry Jones (Get Out, American Made), Abbie Cornish (Seven Psychopaths, Geostorm), John Hawkes (The Sessions)

Director: Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths)

Writer: Martin McDonagh

Producers: Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh

Release date: 18 January 2018

Distributor: Fox Searchlight (through 20th Century Fox here in Singapore)

Runtime: 115 minutes

Rating: NC16 (Coarse Language and Some Violence)

Plot: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri details the events that follow after Mildred Hayes (played by McDormand) puts signs on three billboards outside her city calling out the police, specifically Chief William "Bill" Willoughby (played by Harrelson), for the lack of progress on the investigation of the murder of Hayes' daughter, Angela. Things get worse when Willoughby's second-in-command, Officer Jason Dixon (played by Rockwell), who also has a reputation for being racist, gets involved.

When a movie is this good, sometimes that gives me the urge to review it. No (non-action, at least) film has blown me away this much since Inside Out in 2015. I had a feeling I was going to be disappointed, but this delivered more than I wanted. This is a well-written movie with a very engaging plot, although it still relies heavily on dialogue. So it's no surprise McDonagh has received great reviews for his three written films, this included. It also helps that the pace of the film is very consistent.

McDormand is great in her role as the grieving mother. This is not the McDormand you might have heard in her roles in the two cartoons mentioned in the film description. This is a profane, angry, seething mother who's hellbent in getting revenge. You rarely see her smile in the film, and she's tearing people apart, (especially those getting in her way) be it her priest, or the news reporter. She gives her all and you can feel the emotions she conveys. McDonagh wrote the script with her in mind, which may also be why she does her role so well.

Picture above: Willoughby speaking to Hayes on why he doesn't approve of the billboards, and what he's doing in the murder case.

The other two main actors, played by Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell, also give great performances in their roles as the chief and second-in-command respectively. Willoughby's also discovered to be sick, which only makes things go from bad to worse. (go see the movie to find out why) One of my main flaws with the movie is that I wished we saw more of Willoughby. Thankfully, we also get to see more of Rockwell, another angry person who targets black people in particular.

Other supporting actors/actresses, including Hedges as Hayes' son, Cornish as Willoughby's wife, Hawkes as Hayes' ex-husband and Dinklage as Hayes' suitor also add to the movie and did very good acting for their respectively characters.

Perhaps my main issue, although a minor one, with the movie is that it could have been a little longer. The ending is quite ambiguous (maybe McDonagh intended it to be as such), so I was surprised when the movie ended. But apart from that, this is an excellent movie about grief and anger. No one is perfect in this movie, and no one's a hero or villain; it reminds us that they are all humans who make mistakes but aren't villians, or even heroes.

My rating: 4.5/5

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