Mercurial Mildred

Rating: 7/10 (20 March 2018)

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri starts off with Mildred (Frances McDormand) renting these three abandoned billboards for a full year with monthly payments of $5000. On the billboards she's calling out the Ebbing police chief, Chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson), for not solving the rape and murder of her daughter. That's jarring in any place but it's especially jarring in a small town like Ebbing, MO where everybody knows everybody.
Right away I was with Mildred. I've read enough true crime books to know that one of the best ways to get a major crime solved is by putting pressure on law enforcement, either through the media or by bothering them. John Wayne Gacy was captured because of a relentless mother that wouldn't let the police rest until her son was found. Most police are either overworked or underfunded to give the required attention to every case. So, if a parent, spouse, or loved one doesn't let the case die neither will the police.
And Mildred went for maximum effect by calling out the police chief instead of just simply asking for justice. This made her public enemy number one in Ebbing. But it was clear that Mildred was long past caring what anyone--especially anyone in Ebbing--thought about her. The impression she gave off was that she'd been disappointed and let down so much in her life that she no longer cared about what people said or thought about her. It was evident in her dress and her demeanor. She didn't make herself up, she didn't wear feminine clothing and she was very rough and coarse toward everyone.
To many this would make her character a bit of a heroine. A woman that says what she wants to when she wants to and publicly appears how she wants to is a sign of liberation for many. But there was a down side to Mildred's approach; and that is: you attract more flies with honey than you do with a bazooka. This is not to say she should've been dolled up and overly demure to everyone, no. The fact is the town of Ebbing was with her yet they loved the chief as well. Ebbing wasn't satisfied with such a heinous crime occurring in their town. Maybe a good chunk of them were too impotent when it came to rolling up the sleeves and pursuing justice but they certainly weren't for the rape and murder of one of their own. Mildred was so surly and confrontational that it was counterproductive. She had suffered a lot in her life as was evident and she was at wit's end but the path she embarked upon was a path of isolation and self-destruction.
Mildred was a mercurial character. She couldn't be ignored by anyone: those in Ebbing or the audience watching the film. Her character was bold and jumped off the screen; shoot, I just wrote a few paragraphs about just her. The movie was good and I thought all of the performances were good, not just Frances McDormand.