Vengeance is mine

Rating: 7/10 (9 January 2018)

Martin McDonagh has directed a clever crime drama with black humour which tips a wink to the Coen brothers, although as a writer McDonagh's screenplay also has some holes which are difficult to gloss over.
The Coen brothers link is maintained by a powerful bitter performance from Frances McDormand who plays Mildred whose teenage daughter was murdered almost a year earlier an the police have got nowhere with their investigations.
Mildred takes matters into her own hands and creates a spark of incendiary dynamite, by hiring three billboards to shame the Ebbing chief of police chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) to action. Her action shocks and shames the small town, the local police do not take well to Mildred's action especially as Willoughby is dying of cancer.
Hot headed police officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell) who got away with beating up a black suspect thinks he can bully Mildred, he certainly intimidates the man who rented out the billboards. However he finds that this grieving mother is too hard boiled for him.
There is almost a freewheeling style to this film although if you are familiar with McDonagh's previous film, that a lot of it comes together at the end. Despite the bleak subject, there is a lot of humour here as well as tenderness.
It is terrifically acted from the main leads, McDormand, Rockwell and Harrelson all vying for Oscar nominations.
You also get good performances from other actors in smaller roles such as Caleb Landry Jones as Red the advertising agent who rents the billboards out and gets thrown out of the window for his troubles. Also John Hawkes as Mildred's ex husband who left her for a teenage girl.
However you also have outward display of brutality from a serving police officer, a man in a bar who beats up an officer and Mildred who shows signs of violence and no one gets arrested.