A film that may not have all the answers, but doesn't claim to. Oh, and top notch acting and writing of course!

Rating: 10/10 (23 January 2018)

I saw this film yesterday, and I do not regret it - 100% will watch it again.
The movie is very much unlike many other movies out at the minute, or in really recent history. Even by Martin McDonaugh's standard's, this is a movie that doesn't fit into the same Black Comedy box as his previous two movies "In Bruges" or "Seven Psychopaths". In fact, this movie is far more up on tragedy than those two, which even in their sad moments have some humour. Don't get me wrong; this is not a film that's lacking in colour or dynamics, but it's certainly bleaker than those others by McDonaugh.
At the head of this movie is a phenomenal cast. The most notable of these are the recent Oscar nominated Frances McDormand as Mildred Hayes, Woody Harrelson as Sheriff Bill Willoughby and Sam Rockwell as Officer Jason Dixon.
Frances McDormand is a force of nature in this role, and is certainly her best film work since/included Fargo, depending on your opinion. Her character of Mildred is one that could very easily be portrayed as a flawless martyr, striving for justice for her daughter at the behest of everyone else but whom will convince the audience to see her as a perfect person and nothing more. But she doesn't, as whilst you will laugh and cheer when she confronts Dixon in the station with her now famous "Hey f***head!", you have issues when she tells Willoughby she doesn't care of his cancer, but is later sympathetic when she starts to wain. It's a character that could easily have been boring, but isn't in her hands. The best example of this is when they show a flashback to her final chat with her daughter, and her daughter yells "I hope I get raped on the way", she responds "I hope you get raped too!", and that's what happened. It's a great moment, played as intensely as needed for it to work.
Woody Harrelson plays a side of him people rarely see. He's not in the film for very long, as he kills himself fairly early in, but he certainly stays in the mind despite this. Willoughby is a man trying to do the right thing, but is going against an unbeatable obstacle, and who we, as an audience, do get a sense of despite his short screen time: a funny, compassionate, well respected leader of the police, and a great father and husband at the same time. When he went, I legit teared up.
Sam Rockwell, in his best work ever, plays the character who goes through the biggest arc in the movie. At the start, Dixon is very much a bitter, violent cop with a fragile ego, who when it breaks becomes scary. His endpoint however, whilst not a complete 180, is still big; he learns to take his time, think things through, and be more willing to do a policeman's work for the good of the community than himself.
Martin McDonaugh's screenplay is top tier brilliance, as humour and horror do exist in the same plain, and his direction is just as sterily clean, so when the violence does hit, it really does. The two biggest examples are when the fight between Mildred, her ex-husband Charlie played by John Hawkes, and her son Robbie played by Lucas Hedges, and when Dixon attacks the billboard owner in a rage at his office.
The ending, whilst not what I was expecting, was welcome. To me, it signals that whilst the resolve isn't there, the character's of Mildred and Jason have found a purpose beyond and this helps them to cope. As they head off to places unknown to do a thing they're not sure of, we know that their moral compasses are still guiding them, in this very adult, very great film, that is totally worth a rewatch.
One last thing: the race issue in this movie, is something that, if it hadn't been brought up, you wouldn't notice. It's ironic that in a movie that is based around growing in compassion and empathy, that this strange label of racism has been put on a movie that neither promotes these viewpoints, but the character's that do exhibit these points of view see the error of them.
Whatever; I enjoyed this film regardless, and that won't change. If you think it looks like a good viewing, give it a go.