Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

*This review discusses plot points which some may consider spoilers*          

          As a first time viewer of any work by Irish writer director Martin McDonagh, it took some time for me to settle into the particular rhythm of his authorial style. Ostensibly a comedy drama, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (to give it its full charmingly loquacious title) is McDonagh’s third feature film, and the one that seems to have broken new ground for him critically and financially since its release in the US towards the end of 2017. It has been nominated for, and won, countless awards and is still gaining new ones. This means that as part of the standard later UK release, it brings with it a certain amount of expectation. It invariably meets those high expectations, in the end settling as a barbed, unique picture with a spectacular central performance from the great and far too rarely utilised in a leading role Frances McDormand.

          The film begins with Mildred Hayes (McDormand) happening past the three billboards of the title which sit on a disused road into the fictional town of Ebbing, disused since the highway was built diverting drivers from the road. This doesn’t stop an idea forming in Mildred’s mind to use the billboards to shame and coerce the Ebbing police force into progress in their investigation into the rape and murder of her daughter Angela, which took place seven months previously. After a visit to the advertising company that owns the billboards, the chosen messsages are erected, with particular venom aimed at the chief of police Bill Willoughy (Woody Harrelson). The town is divided over the billboards, and a battle of wills ensues between Mildred and the police.

          What could have been a rote back and forth between a backwards police force and a put upon underdog becomes something more pleasingly complex in McDonagh’s hands. This is no black and white portrayal, with Harrelson’s police chief particularly being painted in complex strokes. While other characters have nothing but disdain for Mildred and her antagonism, Chief Willoughby clearly has deep wells of respect for this woman, and the scenes and conversations between the two characters sparkle throughout. Kudos therefore to both McDormand and Harrelson, seasoned performers both and each at the top of their respective games.

          Frances McDormand can do nothing but be the absolute centre and star of the show. This is a role that absolutely plays to her particular strengths as a performer, harkening back to previous spiky characters in many Coen brothers movies, particularly The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001) and Burn After Reading (2008), as well as Wonder Boys (Curtis Hanson, 2000) and Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012). The character name likewise brings to mind one of the great hardworking single mothers of cinema in Joan Crawford’s Mildred Pierce from Michael Curtiz’ film of the same from 1945, an example of what was billed at the time as a women’s picture. Three Billboards’ Mildred is not shorn of the rough edges, she is allowed to make questionable choices throughout the story, such as is in a late story development that sees her firebomb the police station as the culmination of the standoff between herself and Ebbing’s finest. She is a rounded, complex character, perfectly embodied by McDormand, clearly relishing the stream of barbs and insults that litter the character’s dialogue.
          The biggest character arc within the film is given to Sam Rockwell as Officer Jason Dixon. He goes through the most change and growth, beginning the film as a slow-witted, racist cop. His progression is prompted by the arrival of a black police chief (played by The Wire’s Clarke Peters) following the suicide of Harrelson’s cancer-struck Willoughby. While this development smacks of convenient and lazy plotting, it is muddied by the fact that the character’s road to redemption is tripped up when his solution to the investigation proves a dead end. This is one of the film’s biggest surprises, and clearly follows McDonagh’s particular way with a story. It all looks like its heading for a neat ending with the redeemed cop solving the mystery, when it turns out, its not. Life does not give you neat denouements, the killer isn’t always apprehended. The world can be a mess. The film is full of bold, interesting story routes, and is never less than throughly entertaining and interesting.
          Those three billboards, studded like vertebra in the ground both imposing and vast, form the backbone of the story, morally as well as visually. Scenes are consistently framed around them, characters constantly talk about them, and they are even visible from Mildred’s own front yard. They form an intoxicating image, lending extraordinary visual credence to a very dialogue driven film.