Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance.

Rating: 9/10 (18 January 2018)

The writer & director, Martin McDonagh, has managed to capture the subtle dark sense of humour which often seems to accompany death and grieving. He recognises how it is used as a coping mechanism to deal with the loss of a loved one; yet the line between drawing offense or being funny is thin.
McDonagh mastered this in his first film, In Bruge, which was marketed as comedy, even though it dealt with murder and suicide. A lot of the audience see 3 billboards as a comedy too, but it is not. Truthfully, it is another film which deals with grieving and loss, all five stages of it, with all the myriad expressions of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance.
The small town setting in Missouri works really well. It could almost be a small town in Ireland , or anywhere for that matter. Small towns are small pools in which the big fish are always the more louder and brashist characters. Enter Sam Rockwell, who plays the role of a racist policeman who redeems himself in the end. He is the equal to Colin Farrell's characters in 7 Psychopaths (another McDonagh film which they both starred in) and In Bruge.
Frances McDormand is commanding in nearly every scene playing a local anti-hero who everyone is polite to on account of the recent loss of her daughter, yet behind her back they all judge.
Woody Harrelson is just getting better and better at playing yet another role in which he almost sucks in both respect and empathy.
This is such a fine film that I watched it again, the very next day. It is a non-Hollwood production which despite winning Best Picture at the Golden Globes, it seems to be getting it fair share of 'haters' in America. I would guess that this is because of the dissmissive way in which the narratve deals with racism in the Southern States. It seems to say that at the end of the day, people are just people and that a person's colour is irrelevant.