So this film isn’t all what I thought it would be. It’s not a thriller. It’s not a mystery. It’s not even a crime movie. It’s a family drama much like “Ordinary People” (1980) and “Manchester by the Sea.” A bunch of people with emotional problems due to the death of a family member. It’s a habit with family dramas, but it works. Martin McDonagh directs the his actors to the best performances that I’ve seen on screen this past year. Every actor in this film knew his place, how to act when prompted, and complement each other when tears needed shedding, anger needed enraging, and laughs needed to burst.
Frances McDormand plays Mildred, a bad tempered mother whose only way of coping with her daughter’s murder is to unleash her hate on everyone around her. Particularly the Ebbing police department headed by Sheriff Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) and deputy Dixon (Sam Rockwell). Mildred takes a drastic turn to push her daughter’s investigation along when she puts up three billboards, harassing the police to solve her daughter’s murder. This I think is a very selfish move on her part as she thinks her pain is all that matters and will make everyone suffer with her rather than suffer alone. And boy does she accomplish that.
The strongest part I can see in this film as I said before are the performances. Rockwell is the one actor in this production that gives everything he’s got. His character Dixon is a bigot, but he’s a bigot who grows a heart and learns the hard way that you’ve got to be nice sometimes to succeed at something. He’s also immature and a sloppy police officer who needs direction. Rockwell’s approach to his character is so natural and flowy that I forgot that he was acting. That’s the skill a determined actor. God bless America!
Woody Harrelson (L) and Frances McDormand (R) in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
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