Is advertising a crime?.....

Rating: 9/10 (15 January 2018)

After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter's murder case, Mildred Hayes makes a bold move.
She rents three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby, the town's revered chief of police.
When his second-in-command, Officer Dixon, who's an immature mother's boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle is only exacerbated.
The trailer, especially the Red Band, advertised this almost as a laugh out loud comedy with a dark streak coarsing through its veins, and coming from Mcdonagh, I was pretty sure it would be.
And although this does have some hilarious moments, it's a heartbreaking piece of cinema, with some truly wonderful writing, a phenomenal performance from McDormand, and camerawork that takes you right into the heart of the film.
Her cause to many is unjust, but all she wants are some answers. Yes, she may have a choice with her words, but when the last words you spoke with your child were of ill will, I'm sure you'd be a little embittered with life.
Rockwell is at career best here as Dixon, the uneducated, racist ne'er do well cop that lives with his mother, but his character is unnerving because although he appears nothing more than a drunk 'simpleton' his sporadic outbursts shock you into unlikeness.
Harrelson proves again he can do no wrong as the Sherriff, himself going through a life changing incident. The scenes between him and McDormand are fantastic, and although there is mutual respect there, no love is lost, especially during one scene.
It's such a fresh jolt to the sense that something with such a macabre subject matter could be at the same time, hilarious, and heartbreaking.
A must see.