Unpredictable and moving tale of grief.

Rating: 7/10 (3 January 2018)

Employing black comedy to explore how a mother mourns for her viciously murdered daughter is not the way most filmmakers would tackle such a tough subject. But subversive UK writer-director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths) is not like most filmmakers. Taking the path less travelled at every opportunity, McDonagh confounds expectations by showing the uncomfortable, unfiltered actions of those trying to come to terms with such a heinous crime. There are no melodramatic, heart-string pulling moments of Hollywood sentimentality here, just pissed off people looking for answers wherever they can find them. The rawness doesn't always work, with a couple of otherwise affecting scenes stumbling due to awkward climactic gags; however, the dark humour (and stubborn aversion to anything resembling normality) successfully turns the film into something of a modern Greek tragedy, and it's compelling viewing. The cast are on point too. Frances McDormand will surely garner an Oscar nomination for her tour de force turn as Mildred, the deceased's mother who'll stop at nothing to get justice, while Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson are captivating as two cops with different approaches to the job and their community. Visually it's solid without being overly memorable, but McDonagh and cinematographer Ben Davis do manage to construct an audaciously long and unbroken tracking shot that is breathtaking in its brutality, and an (extremely) early contender for sequence of the year. An unpredictable tale of grief that eschews mawkishness in favour of frankness, Three Billboards is an amusing look at how unfair and crappy life can occasionally be.