The pain underneath the rage

Rating: 9/10 (30 December 2017)

No parent in this world deserve to loss a child by an unspeakable tragedy or a brutal crime but when they does, not every tragedy teaches us tolerance and not everyone can get to channel their grief & anger through an unorthodox way like Frances McDormand's Mildred did in this emotionally moving dramedy. And as we know the world is far more complex & unpleasant place than most celluloid projections but it takes a remarkable storyteller & filmmaker to convey that in a convincing manner and Martin McDonagh did this wonder in his latest and this year's one of the best films here. When the little town almost starts to forget about the vicious rape & murder of her young daughter, the aggrieved mother Mildred Hayes rents the three abandoned billboards near her home to protest over the lack of progress in the investigation. This leads to pressure on the townsfolk's favorite chief (beautifully played by our favorite Woody Harrelson), resulting anger from his loyal officers, and so on down the line. This is a darkly funny, yet a very profound film where most of the major characters were flawed by their decisions or actions, torn apart inside by grief or frustrations and that made it so grounded & compelling. Almost every actor in their assigned role did justice to the solid & neatly written scripts where the character developments turned out one of the most strongest elements of this movie. McDormand on the lead delivered clearly an Oscar worthy performance, she was so great with her character's internal language...time to time slowly revealing the pain underneath the rage was something so stunning & compelling to watch that I haven't seen in most of the acclaimed & major films of recent years. Sam Rockwell just nailed his supporting role of Dixon, a small town racist police officer, the development & along the way the changes in his character were another striking part of the film. Not just being a fan of McDonagh's IN BRUGES (2008), I think this is the best film of the year that really deserve some major recognition in coming award season.