Review 642: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

  

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a rare breed of film, one that is not meant to be liked.

Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) is a greiving mother who rents three roadside billboards to call attention to the unsolved rape and murder of her daughter Angela (Kathryn Newton).

At its core, Three Billboards is a meditation on greif and anger  Hayes forces the town to relive the tragedy that befell her and the public is suddenly forced to deal with it when they'd all prefer to forget about what happened.

There's also a theme of Forgiveness as the center of Three Billboards. This is most clearly visible in Mildred's arc which resolves around her desperately trying to forgive herself for the last words that she said to her daughter. This is symbolised in how she appologises to a dear which she personifies as Angela and evenutally

Martin McDonagh's direction isn't particularly flashy  Ebbing Missouri is portrayed as a broken society that is both corrupt and lawless, the score by Carter Burwell is beautiful

A big flaw with Three Billboards is that the characters are unlikable, McDonagh leans so heavily into the idea that these people are either flawed or terrible people overall that they just make everyone seem like the sort of people you wouldn't to spend 10 mins in a room with. None of these people are pleasent or charasmatic.

Frances McDormand delivers a powerhouse performance playing Mildred Hayes. Her character is not an intrisicly likeable or sympathetic and the narrative never really goes out of its way to make us sympatheise with her.

Woody Harrelson

Sam Rockwell

Young acrtress Kathryn Newton is only in one scene playing Mildred's daughter Angela but she makes her mark. It's clear from her single appearence in a flashback that they had a falling out and the fact it happened before her death is clearly something that deeply affects Mildred in the present.

I give this film a negative review yet I don't feel it's a bad film, it's more disconcerting  I admire the crafstmanship and the cast yet didn't feel as much empathy or connection to the characters as I should have, 2.5/5.

The Anonymous Critic.