THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI is a darkly comic drama from Academy Award nominee Martin McDonagh (In Bruges). After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter's murder case, Mildred Hayes (Academy Award winner Frances McDormand) makes a bold move, painting three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby (Academy Award nominee Woody Harrelson), the town's revered chief of police.
Critics Of "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"
Chicago Reader
November 30, 2017
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri tells the story of a woman emulating God's vengeance when she might profit more by emulating his forgiveness, especially toward herself.
It's a portrayal of great power yet moving stillness, and heartfelt humour combined with a ferocious will, as Mildred will not give up and will not stop.
The movie is one of the angriest films in recent memory. Yet it has moments of unlikely (yet hilarious) comedy and sincere tenderness, along with acts of nearly unwatchable violence
McDormand is a swaggering lead who leaves everyone else bloodied and burned (I'm referring to the singeing capacity of her performance, but I also mean it literally too).
McDonagh works way too hard to inject nearly every scene with his patented solution of acid wit and dark-roast comedy... It's jarringly effective until it starts to feel like shtick, at which point it works only as a numbing agent.
Despite McDonagh's cinematic hyperbole, it's the strength of the performances from McDormand, Harrelson and Rockwell that keeps "Three Billboards" sturdily anchored in a compellingly rendered reality.
But while that is a rage that's exhilarating to witness, it's a rage that's not available to everyone. Just as not everyone in Ebbing can claim the protection of being considering "good," we still don't live in a world where everyone gets to be angry.
