Stagy dark comedy with good acting

Rating: 8/10 (15 November 2017)

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. When a film is so highly spoken about it can mean one of two things: 1) It's going to be a great film, or 2) the praise is being overstate. Unfortunately, "Three Billboards..." falls into the later category, as director/writer Martin McDonagh ("Seven Psychopaths" 2012) presents an intriguing dark comedy that ultimately comes across as a variety of individual scenes put together to make a story. Featuring Frances McDormand ("Fargo"), Woody Harrelson ("The Hunger Games"), Sam Rockwell ("The Way Way Back"), Luca Hedges ("Manchester by the Sea"), Caleb Landrey ("Get Out"), Zeljko Ivanek ("Argo") and Peter Dinklage ("Game of Thrones"), the acting is not the problem here. McDonagh's sets are stagy, his writing is lackluster, he tends to add in scenes/character in order to oddly move the story along, and the ending does nothing for the flow of the film. Standing out in this heavily star packed film is Caleb Landrey. Landrey is initially had to understand, due to an unexplainable accent, however, he over comes this weakness by graciously playing the victim. "Three Billboards" is far from a clunker. I guess I just expected a more tightly woven and satisfying production.