Skates on thin ice at times, but overall, fantastic

Rating: 9/10 (31 January 2018)

Story time, kids.
Some weeks ago, when I went to a screening of The Room that included an appearance from Tommy Wiseau himself, I got to the theater very early, because it was Freaking Tommy Freaking Wi Freaking Seau and I wanted to make sure I was first in line to meet him.
However, when I got there, there was already a massive line. I figured it could only be for one thing, the aforementioned Freaking Tommy Freaking Wi Freaking Seau so I just got in the line. It wasn't for another 20 minutes of standing in this massive line that I realized it was for another film, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
I was dumbfounded. Freaking Tommy Freaking Wi Freaking Seau was about to be in the building and meanwhile there was this massive line for a movie I never heard of. Needless to say it was on my radar since then. And I'm glad my memory didn't fail me for once because this is a heck of a film.
The wonderful thing about this film is that it's so not what you think it is from the description alone. One would assume this will be a standard story about a powerless individual going against the big bad police force. A clear story about the good guy versus the bad guy.
Instead, this movie has no good guys. This movie has no bad guys. This movie has people. People that all think they're doing the right thing; people with clear motivations and radical ideas on how to accomplish them, sometimes oblivious to the big picture ramifications.
Frances McDormand plays one of these people, Mildred. Having had a daughter who passed away in terrible fashion, she is singularly focused on having her local police force get off what she perceives to be their lazy asses and figure out who did the terrible deed.
Contrary to a more stereotypical movie dealing with this subject matter however, the cops aren't flat out evil here. There are cops that are genuinely trying to have the case solved, but simply can't due to a lack of leads. Frances' singular devotion to calling out the police in fact, has very human impact on good men that may not deserve the public humiliation she's offering. However as a woman that has lived through the hells of an abusive spouse and a slain child, she isn't seeing this side of the coin.
It was a breath of fresh air that in this current political climate where they easily could have reached for the low hanging fruit and portrayed the police as singularly abusive and cruel, they didn't do that. Everyone here is a human. A flawed human, because all humans are flawed. There are for sure police that act in an abusive manner, but there are citizens that commit atrocious acts of violence here too. Some of the cops are racist or homophobic, some aren't. And same with the non-police characters.
McDormand is magnificent here. She has an exterior as rough and solid as a cinder block. She is hyper focused, ballsy and doesn't accept anything less than what she wants. It's this attitude that moves the plot and supplies some decent comedy. It's also this attitude that makes her brief moments of vulnerability more unsettling. Her devotion to her ultimate goal of justice is admirable of course and the fierceness at which she fights for it is enjoyable, but the impact of her actions on those around her often gets lost to her. She never stops being sympathetic, but any notions of her being 100% in the right are dispelled before long.
Equally maginificent, perhaps even moreso is Woody Harrelson, who only took a few months to surpass his amazing turn in War For The Planet of The Apes to deliver another belter. His character, Willoughby, is a decent man. He's well spoken, polite, kind, cares about public service and loves his family. Unfortunately, he is also the chief of police and therefore the greatest single object of Mildred's venom. Watching him trying to do the best for everyone and stay positive while being torn apart not only from the public assassination of his character, but also from a significant personal problem, is a believable and sympathetic story in it's own right.
Having these two people, both with respectable opinions and motivations, clashing with each other is a brilliant catalyst and elevates this film beyond this same plot done with less care. Instead of having a definitive hero, you are left torn throughout the hour and 55 minute runtime, simultaneously rooting for everyone and no one.
The single greatest character growth comes not from either of the aforementioned characters however and instead comes from Sam Rockwell's character, Dixon. At the beginning of the film he is Willoughby's simple minded, temperamental, and slavishly devoted underling. At the end of the movie he grows into a much more focused and understandable person, and this transition from someone you can't imagine loving to the opposite is often entertaining, but far more often, crushing. Rockwell is on my list now as another actor to be reckoned with.
The film's only imperfections come in some of the dialogue. There are a couple (only a couple) times where the dialogue comes off as forced. There's the famous "deer" scene and while not the abomination some portray it to be, it definitely comes off as more hokey than sincere. Then there's a scene toward the end of the movie where a person visits her at her place of work that did not make a whole lot of logical sense. These moments are extremely minor and don't preclude the film from being an excellent tale told well.
I've been having good luck with movies lately, and this was no exception. This film has laughs, it has tears and it has real emotion. I was enthralled near every second. There is no obvious hero, and no happy ending. Instead you have real humans going through a series of crushing moments, with all the believable actions and reactions that occur as a result. In less capable hands it could have been a preachy and by the numbers tale we see with the boringly romanticized nature of most "based on a true story" projects. Instead, this entirely fictional work is more real than most of them and I have to respect that.
Oh and Tyrion Lannister and Mac's mom from Always Sunny are in the movie. If that doesn't sell you, go back to your home planet.