Three Billboards is Nasty and Vindictive and Only Funny to Those that Enjoy Cruelty

Rating: 6/10 (16 December 2017)

Does having a daughter brutally murdered give you carte blanche to be rude and vicious to others? That is the question I walked away with after seeing Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. The set up is clever, but the delivery is clumsy. And Frances McDormand, who I will always love for Fargo, has one gear in this film: pissed off. Even her grief is pissed off. Some variety in her expressions would have helped.
During the film, Mildred (McDormand) lights things and people on fire, she punches people, she insults everyone, and we are supposed to laugh it off or at least forgive her since her daughter was horribly killed. Unfortunately for the writer and director of this film, the world doesn't work that way. The action in the film was forced and lacked credulity.
Peter Dinklage's character is sympathetic in ways that the protagonist, Mildred, never is. He's charming in his own shy, bumbling way. And Mildred is just an asshole to him. Mildred's son looks confused and two dimensional. I thought McDormand was standing next to a cardboard cut out of him during some scenes. Woody Harrelson as Police Chief Willoughby is incompetent throughout, though the acting is not terrible. Willoughby has failed to find the killer of Mildred's daughter. Then he fails to prosecute Mildred and Police Officer Dixon for clearly breaking the law. It is not plausible. I will give Sam Rockwell props for a job mostly well done for playing the racist, ignorant sexist and making him multidimensional.
Praise the film for being a look at a mother's grief, but don't cheer when she nearly kills someone and treats everyone poorly throughout the film. Rating: Rent it. There is nothing about the film, its music, its look, its staging, to recommend it for the big screen.
Peace,
Tex