Three Billboards, Five Stars

Rating: 9/10 (12 January 2018)

Frances McDormand has the Best Actress Oscar in all but fact for her performance as Mildred Hayes although inevitably the usual churls will emerge and argue that Mildred is so well written that any half-decent actress could phone it in. That is true but the key word is 'actress' by which we mean Bette Davis, Katherine Hepburn, Barbara Stnwyck, Susan Hayward etc. Try casting an acting joke like Keira Knightley, Kate Winslet or any of that ilk and what you'' wind up with is Old Mother Riley Goes West. Luckily Frances McDormand is the real thing and with further luck she is surrounded by serious supporting actors and a fine script. I found the same writer-directors' In Bruges to be a blatant rip-off of Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter but this effort is, on the surface at least, original.