Great performances and characters, but flawed

Rating: 8/10 (25 January 2018)

Its a good movie. Excellently acted and with a lot of good symbolism and a strong message. But it is sadly also a flawed film. I liked it and i would watch it again at any time as it was enjoyable, tense and had a lot of grew character development and dark humor. And here is the first problem. The story itself was incredibly serious and were the characters and while I do not mind dark humor in a heavy weighted film like this, here it was a bit too much, sometimes Martin McDonagh lost himself in that and it often felt like he did several scenes or made several decisions just for the sake of the humor.Another flaw the film had were some lose ends and some weird decisions. Now you have a great character like the one Woody Harrelson plays. You build him up extremely well just to kill him randomly off after less than half the film, just because you don't really know where to head with that character or because it doesnt serve any more purpose. Sure there are some critical moments of the film that are still influenced by that character after his death, but still, it felt weird.
Other than that it was a great film that served as a showcase for some of the best performances of the year. First you have Frances McDormand who turns into one of this years most memorable and outstanding performances. She really becomes he role and you feel that hatred and broken heart she has. Great performance and one of the most perfect casting decisions in a long time. Woody Harrelson as mentioned was also good and had a great character. The Oscar nomination he received for it overrates the performance a little though. Sam Rockwell is definitely the stronger supporting role. What a character! And I love the way they developed him, which was unexpected and felt so real and good, because although it was hard to like him, you still kind of felt sorry for him. Wonderful performance. Abbie Cornish was the weakest link of the film. While Rockwell, McDormand and Harrelson were perfect casting coops, she was not. Totally miscast. Good to see John Hawkes and Peter Dinklage in significant supporting roles. Lucas Hedges was all right and I really liked Caleb Landry Jones who gave one of the best performances of his career. Great score, great atmosphere. A very good and watchable movie.