Review of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) by Lane Z — 12 Jan 2018

I want to start by saying right off the bat this is not a comedy. Despite it's label of being both that and a drama, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is most assuredly a heavy drama tinged with some black comedy instead of the other way around. There's a reason it was included in the best picture category or dramas. With that out of the way, Three Billboards is one of the best acted films of 2017. Written and directed by Martin McDonagh, go ahead and add this to the list of his already stellar list of obscure, small-town, odd-ball films. I've reviewed nearly all his films from The Guard to In Bruges to Seven Psychopaths; all of them are just as enjoyable as the last.

What makes Three Billboards a little skewed from that small sample size of films is the focus on a more serious event. This is a movie not for the faint of heart. It draws on a terrible occurrence within a town still beating with a smidge of racism, homophobia, and prejudice from many of its town folk. Mildred Hayes, played by the wonderful and possibly soon-to-be award winner Francis McDormand, has lost her daughter to a rape and murder. With the case still unresolved, she takes to three billboards on the outskirt of town on a road less traveled to put forth a challenge to the police. It's a wonderful act of defiance from a character we may not love in the end, but certainly can admire and respect along the way. McDormand doesn't quite play Hayes as someone with nothing left to lose, but it falls more into focused recklessness. She has a clear mission in mind with revenge being the most prominent.

The cast outside of McDormand is top notch. Sam Rockwell plays a scummy, ignorant cop, but his character arc by the end of the movie almost turns him into affable. There's a scene Rockwell delivers with such intensity about halfway through the movie that it leaves you a little shaken knowing he's probably not far from reality. It's easy to see why he should also be up for some supporting awards playing Officer Jason Dixon.

The rest of the cast from Woody Harrelson, Abbie Cornish, Lucas Hedges and company are firing on all cylinders even if their screen time is limited. McDonagh even came out and said this movie was doomed if McDormand wasn't going to be in it, and you can easily see why she is the rock of the cast.

However, despite offering us an in depth look at a small town in Missouri and focusing on the fallout from one particular event, I felt a little aimless toward the end without a finite resolution. McDonagh may have spent plenty of time on getting his main characters to interact, but I was left hoping for a bit more inclusion of some of the minor townsfolk to really engross me in the environment. The open ended finish felt a little to parallel with McDonagh's mindset; he probably didn't quite know how to tighten everything up himself.

Outside of the gruesome events leading up to the reason for the main plot and the harsh language used to exemplify a bit of the times in a small-town setting like Ebbing, Missouri, Three Billboards leans heavily on its cast to push the drama while using well written dialogue and well placed droplets of black comedy to keep it from becoming too overbearing. Whether some vote getters think it's too controversial for best picture, it certainly deserves to see a nomination.