Director: Martin McDonagh
Screenplay: Martin McDonagh
Starring: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, John Hawkes, Peter Dinklage
Running Time: 115 minutes
Genre: Drama, dark comedy, crime
Mildred Hayes (McDormand) is a single mother who lives in the small town of Ebbing, Missouri. Mildred is consumed with grief and rage over the brutal murder of her teenage daughter seven months previously. Angry at the lack of progress in the official police investigation, Mildred hires three advertising billboards along a road into town and uses them to personally call out the town's police chief, Willoughby (Harrelson), as to why no arrests have been made. This, of course, does not go down well with either the police or the townspeople, and Mildred soon finds herself a target.
This is something of a tragicomedy, dealing with seriously dark and disturbing themes and occasionally brutal violence, however it is also very funny, with some laugh out loud lines. Frances McDormand dominates the film as Mildred Hayes, a tough, witty and angry woman, who does not care about what anyone thinks, but who still has doubts about her mission. One of the strengths of the film is the way characters are introduced one way, and then are revealed to be more complex, particularly Woody Harrelson's turn as the troubled police chief. The film raises some issues regarding police racism which it never really deals with, and some viewers may find the arc of Sam Rockwell's racist police officer hard to stomach. However, this is certainly worth seeing, it's a dark but hilarious film, well-made with some fantastic performances. It's a film about the corrosive effects of anger, revenge of violence, how it can become an endless cycle that consumes everyone and everything.
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