Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Review)

Brandon Thompson
Jan 11, 2018
4 min read

Martin McDonagh has been in eyes of the Academy ever since his 2004 short film 'Six Shooter' won the Oscar for the best short film. He also earned a nomination for his feature debut 'In Bruges', which helped break him into the mainstream. With his third feature film, it looks like he will he earn some more love from the Academy for 'Three Billboards'. However, I don't feel the acclaim is warranted.

'Three Billboards' is about Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) trying to get her local police department to solve the case of her murdered daughter by putting up some billboards just outside of town. These billboards are seen by most in the town as excessive and they're expensive to keep up. The odds are against Mildred but she persists. The billboards in the film are directed at the Chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) and when he confronts Mildred about it we hear both cases on whether or not the billboards should stand (We also learn that Willoughby has terminal cancer). This is my first problem with the film. There's no clear cohesive conflict between these characters as they both drive the narrative for the first half of the film. The only conflict is between Hayes and another officer in the town, Dixon (Sam Rockwell), but this soon recedes (and jarringly at that). Then some aren’t given either. Peter Dinklage, Zeljko Ivanek, Amanda Warren, and Clarke Peters’s characters could’ve been cut or mixed together with the more important characters in the movie.

There are several other characters in the film but they seem to be inconsequential to the plot or only exist to help it. The Post, another film out at the moment, manages to give enough smaller characters their moments that help prop up the main narrative while making them feel important enough to care. Three Billboards skips over them all. The inconsequential characters include Mildred's son, ex-husband and his 19-year-old girlfriend (the film also makes a point of that age 19 times too). While these character's don't serve the plot they are used to explore Mildred Hayes's character but they themselves are never given the depth they deserve. The others like Willoughby and Dixon only serve the plot. They are only given depth when the plot requires it.

The plotting of this film relies on the tent pole scenes carrying enough emotion to last the film until the next one. The scenes in-between often feel like filler that is often repeating itself. The tent pole scenes also push the plot forward enough so that the film can explore the consequences from those scenes. When McDonagh runs out of things to explore he throws in a curve to the plot and repeats himself.

Audience sympathy is a concept that this film has a trouble grasping beyond Mildred Hayes. The arc of some characters, especially Dixon, was uneven. His whole character did a 180 after he read a letter. He went from a "black hating" police officer to someone who tried to be more loving and wanting to stop every rapist ever in one scene. McDonagh's attempts to make us sympathise with him were appreciated (we need to see more grown men cry on screen) but we see him commit crimes and just being a bad person at first. He's never punished or judged within reason and consequence. On the other hand, we're meant to like Willoughby because he's a hard-working man with cancer. Yet forget that he overlooks Dixon's racist history on the basis of that if they took away all racist cops there would be three left and they would be homophobes.

Mildred and Wiloughby discuss the billboards

Frances McDormand, however, is excellent as always. Even if the film is almost selfishly centred on her in terms of character development. She uses every moment to explore her character further to create one of the years' best female characters. She delivers her dialogue with plenty of fierceness and an edge that makes everyone around her sit up in their seat. Her ability to convey her thinking and emotion through not only her dialogue and voice but her facial expressions. Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson are also strong in this film with bringing the fury to McDormand's flame. While their confrontations may seem unclear as to where they stand on the spectrum of friends-enemies, they still make the most of their scenes.

This film was marketed as a black comedy but the marketing department seemed to have to put most of the good parts in the trailer. There some good things unrevealed (and things were taken out of context) in the trailer. Overall, I found the film lacking in this department. It lacked to do what I think good black comedy should do. Make us laugh and at the same time make us question why we are laughing and what we are laughing about. All the film's social stances seem like they are forgetting to critique them and sway to the side of sympathising with its racist and misogynist characters. Other quick points in this film...

Other quick points (flaws) on this film...

Peter Dinklage was in this film because McDonagh wanted to use the word Midget again.
Being thrown out a window doesn't make you want to avoid the person who did it. I don't know what will.
The film should've explored the relationship between Mildred and her daughter. One flashback wasn't enough.
What accent does Willoughby's wife have? Is it Australian? If so it's a weird Australian accent and why is she in Missouri?
When a black person gets out of prison for something they probably didn't do wouldn't they be really angry, even when they get out?
MARTIN MCDONAGH HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO USE COMIC AN SANS ON THE BILLBOARDS AND HE DIDN'T!