Frances McDormand

Rating: 10/10 (19 March 2020)

I have not been very fond of earlier films by Martin McDonagh, but this movie has Frances McDormand in the lead role as a woman who puts up those three billboards. It's been a good many months since her daughter was raped while dying, then doused with kerosene and set afire, and she puts up those billboards asking sheriff Woody Harrelson why they haven't arrested anyone.
With McDonagh's earlier movies, the performances have been all over the shop, as if some people are playing a scene for comedy and some for tragedy and no one is talking to anyone else. With McDormand at the center, saying what she is saying, the mood shifts in an instant from comedy to Harrelson's coughing his lungs out without anyone missing a beat. It's one of those instants in a movie that tells you that these actors are inhabiting these characters who have known each other for decades and draws me into the moment and the story far more than anything else could.
I don't know if McDonagh has finally learned how to direct his own material; I suspect that he let McDormand have her own head. Several decades ago, her turn in FARGO had me convinced that Ethan Coen came in one day and said "Joel, if you don't let Frances play this scene the way she wants, I'm going to be sleeping on the couch for a long time."
I think she understands these characters and can show them, and McDonagh let her have her head. The proof is on the screen, if you go look at it.