Killer Performances, confused story.

Rating: 6/10 (24 January 2018)

Some films are easy to review. You are, after all, just writing down your opinion on something and generally, your opinion is fairly set once the film is over. You were bored, enthralled, amused or repulsed. Your judgement may well differ from others, but at least you know your own. Then along comes a movie like "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" and I'm honestly not sure exactly how I feel about it.
Let's start with the facts. The film stars Francis McDormand as Mildred, a bereaved mother whose daughter was raped and murdered seven months ago. Desperate to keep the case relevant, she rents three billboards near her house and uses them to accuse the local police department, and specifically the Chief, Willougby (Woody Harrelson) of forgetting about the case. The billboards stir up feelings across the town as the police chief is a popular figure. Particularly upset is Deputy Dixon, (Sam Rockwell) who starts to look for ways, inside and outside the law, to have the billboards taken down.
The spine of the film is Francis McDormand's Oscar nominated performance. This is, for me, one of the films first real contradictions. Her performance is brave and unyielding, but it's also showy and obvious. It's feels like it's a role designed to win awards rather than an authentic portrayal of a real person. In fact, authenticity, is something that the movie struggles with across the board. There's an admirable idea related to almost all the characters in the film, that no one is an absolute. Chief Willougby is a good example. He's not ignoring Mildred's case but the evidence has come up with no leads, he's a good family man but tolerates a degree of racism from his officers.
However, these character traits seem at odds with the lack of legitimacy in the beats of the story. There are several scenes of violent crimes being committed, and witnessed, without any genuine consequence, which seriously undercut any sense of realism. Some plot points seem half baked and disappear without any conclusion but the most egregious problem that the film has though is that it doesn't, in any way, earn the redemption of Sam Rockwell's Dixon. Openly and fairly unapologetically racist from the out, he ends the film as the nearest thing the film has to a "hero" despite never really repenting or undergoing any character growth. In light of the way the world is in early 2018, it feels horribly out of touch.
The tone of the film is difficult to pin down. It's often funny, with some laugh out loud lines of dialogue but there are other scenes of suicide and menace that are difficult to watch. That said, the films is never less than watchable and none of the performances let the side down.
To conclude, "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" is a real Curates Egg of a film, but one worth exploring, if only as a character study.