Simple and Messy - but very beautiful

Rating: 9/10 (11 March 2018)

'Three billboards' isn't what you think it will be. IMDb calls it a 'crime/drama' film. I went in expecting a story centering on how a vengeful and distraught mother exposes laziness and/or incompetence in the police force, spurs action from the authorities, and through the sheer absurdity of having erected billboards, manages to achieve her objectives.
Unexpectedly, what I ended up seeing was an absolute masterpiece. It is something like this: Frances McDormand (Mildred Hayes) appears to be a resolute and stubborn character, that part was accurate. She lives in a small town in the 'heartland' of America. Her life and world are surrounded by broken, bumbling and childish characters, who react viciously and churlishly to her decisions throughout the movie. A chaos-infused series of events ensues (after the billboards are put up) and the movie is full of dark moments of humor. What happens in the end is not what you expect, but hopefully mid-way through the movie, you have realized that it isn't really a 'crime/drama' - it is much, much more than that and deserves to live outside of the traditional storytelling conventions.
Woody Harrelson was enjoyable as the police chief. You are so prepared to hate and despise him at first that you don't know what to make of it when you see his helplessness and earnestness come through, suddenly and completely. Likewise, Sam Rockwell delivers a masterful performance as a dangerously empowered man-child with a deep-rooted racial bias. Others come and go - Lucas Hedges, John Hawkes (haven't seen him in anything meaningful since 'eastbound and down') and - surprise surprise, Peter Dinklage. All of these actors do justice and more to their roles, and you end up being hungry for more from each one of them.
The highlight of course, is Frances McDormand herself and her portrayal of a hated woman. There is a particularly powerful scene at the end where she falls to her knees and breaks into tears. That is when you truly see her for what she is: a wounded and scarred woman, and a heartbroken mother acting out of sheer desperation. You badly want her to get justice, but after 1.5+ hours of 'Three Billboards outside...', you of course know by now that justice doesn't just get awarded to those who deserve it or appear to want it, or even need it. Justice is a meaningless term, and is most likely happenstance (as Woody Harrelson articulates well, in a surprising scene).
There is a big message in the movie though. It is woven in very subtly, but hard to miss once you realize what is happening. And the message is that small-town America is a complex and messy world, that should be taken for what it is. For those trying to idyllically glorify it by using poetic and dramatic terms - please learn from these characters, and their broken lives and mental frameworks. There is deep-rooted bias of every kind that appears institutionalized and very very hard to remove, and permeates into almost all walks of life, as shown by some of the leads in the movie. At the same time, for those dismissing rural towns' inhabitants as simple or menial fools, the earnestness and realism of these characters should hopefully change your view. Their lives, dreams, troubles and hopes hit you hard, and hopefully we take away lessons of our own from them.