Writer: Martin McDonagh
DOP: Ben Davis
Cast: Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Abbie Cornish, Peter Dinklage
A mother (Frances McDormand) personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder by putting up three billboards questioning them when they fail to catch the culprit. Her logic is that it would keep the case in people's mind and she calls out the local police chief (Woody Harrelson) in one of them billboards.
When a girl is brutally raped and murdered, you would expect her mother to receive wider support from the community when she is persistent even almost a year after the event. But the reaction she gets for the billboards is mixed as there is some extenuating circumstance around the Police Chief. We learn over the course of the film that she is doing her actions out of both grief and guilt and these actions become more and more questionable as the film progresses. The film is set in rural Missouri and the characters in it don't have much of a filter when they talk, which is perfect for a Martin McDonagh film as they tend to quite sweary anyway. It is centered around three characters- the mother, the Police Chief and a racist Mamma's boy police officer played by Sam Rockwell. What is so refreshing about films from McDonaghs, both the brothers, is that they are very unpredictable and this one is no different. As soon as we start to think that the film is going this way, it takes an unexpected turn- be it plot-wise or character-wise.
The other two Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths) films can also be described as tragicomedies with the degree of tragic part varying and timing of it tending to be towards the latter part of the film.In contrast, three billboards have a tragic thread running throughout even though the trailer suggests it as an out and out comedy with Frances McDormand playing the female version of Harry (Ralph Fiennes) from In Bruges. It works really well with the great actors delivering great lines from the script and several scenes suddenly turning from tragedy to comedy and vice-versa. One could say that it deals with similar themes like anger, guilt, damnation, midgets and justice that is there in other two films of his as well. It is a favorite for getting the Best Picture award at the Oscars. It is almost a certainty that Frances McDormand will win her second best actress award (first one of course for Fargo) at the Oscars. Both Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell have been nominated in the supporting actor category as well.
There have been some recent controversy about the redemptive nature of Sam Rockwell's racist police officer's character arc and it is a load of bullshit. Almost all the characters in it are dealt in grey and fucking deal with it. After the most recent US mass shooting in a school at Florida, was it, three billboards style protest was done outside Marco Rubio's office. One minor quibble one might have with the film is the arbitrary nature of introduction and convenience of a character who is there only in two scenes. The ambiguous ending that the film goes for makes it alright though in my eyes. The film has done extremely well at the box office grossing around $100 million on its $12 million budget and is certainly one of the best film from last year.
Rating: 4.75/5
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