One of the best pictures of the year, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri, is an unequivocal must-see film. With a great ensemble cast led by Oscar winning actress Frances McDormand, Three Billboards is better than its quirky title and comes from the writer/director of In Bruges.
Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Lucas Hedges, John Hawkes) – Mark it down: Frances McDormand will get an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of a relentlessly sour mother whose drive to find the killer of her raped and murdered daughter tears a community apart.
Martin McDonagh, who wrote and directed the fabulous In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths pens and helms this gut-wrenching small-town tale of damaged people in the middle of nowhere. Like In Bruges, Three Billboards is a dark comedy amidst seriousness and murder. Both movies’ characters are deep, sad, and caring. The storyline is heartbreaking and tragic.
Frustrated by the lack of progress in finding the killer, Mildred/Millie (McDormand) rents three abandoned billboards on a back road near Ebbing to prompt action and embarrass Chief Willoughby, the head of the local police. Woody Harrelson, whose eclectic career includes unquestionably memorable and quirky characters in exceptional films (including McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths), plays the police chief suffering from pancreatic cancer in an excellent and straight performance. Willoughby can be both crass and caring while putting his job and his family ahead of his own suffering. The town wants no part of Millie’s campaign against the Chief even though they empathize with her. Even her son (Lucas Hedges) and estranged husband (John Hawkes), who is now shacking up with a 19-year-old, think she is doing the right thing the wrong way.
But she won’t give an inch or an ounce. She is hanging on by a thread and gaining closure for her daughter’s death is all she allows herself to think about.
Meanwhile, officer Dixon, a drunk and crude slob of a cop, can’t abide Millie’s campaign against his boss. Known as a racist, Dixon is tolerated, even enabled, by his fellow cops and Willoughby. He will do anything to stop Millie, even if it means harassing her friends and the guy who rented her the billboards. Played adroitly by the underrated Sam Rockwell, an Oscar nomination could be forthcoming for hi portrayal as this badly flawed, angry character.
With exceptional performances and a fantastic script, Three Billboards is a multi-layered, character-driven film with the feel of great independent flicks like Hell or High Water, No Country for Old Men, Nebraska, and In Bruges. It never fails to keep the audiences’ attention, to make us laugh, and to feel connections to the characters.
This is one easily one of the best films of the year and will almost certainly be nominated for Best Picture.