Ultimately uneven, despite superlative acting

Rating: 7/10 (16 January 2018)

THREE BILLBOARDS is a well-intentioned film that exposes social wounds and, above all, what individual anger and vindictiveness can do. The idea is great, putting up three large billboards to draw attention to a young girl's rape and murder, but the plot begins to falter quite rapidly, with far too many actors with individual problems and not enough drive to air them, let alone solve them.
The script leaves much to be desired, with obvious credibility loopholes. It reminds me of FARGO, but with far less humor and a much greater foreboding that everybody stands to lose, regardless of what happens.
Action sequences and photography are highly competent. The cherry on the cake is the acting. Mc Dormand is superb. Harrelson, in a much smaller part, sublime, functioning almost as the all-seeing eye and authority, even if he cannot catch the killer and is dying of cancer. Both deserve to be nominated for Oscars, at the very least.
Although his is a highly engaging performance, I found Sam Rowell's part rather thankless, and his character repellent, as a cop who has his private set of rules and is not smart enough to realize that his anger will cost him. He seems to be changing into someone more thoughtful by movie's end, and that's perhaps one of the film's stronger messages - that revenge really gets you into more trouble than it helps.
The film also includes a completely unnecessary, and malicious, attack on the Catholic Church, without any connection to any other part of the film. One can only wonder what Director McDonagh has against the Catholic Church but his hatred clearly runs very deep. His direction is less than inspired and ultimately uneven. With such a stellar cast, he should have invested in a better script, one that does not cop out on an open ending. 7/10