A person can be composed of a set of perfectly good facial featuresa strong chin, a proud nose, kind eyes, a generous mouthand still be basically ugly, and that’s the case with Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Short hair tied up with a bandanna, dressed in coveralls as if she worked at a Jiffy Lube instead of an Ozarks gift shop, Mildred (Frances McDormand) has a sudden inspiration to harass the police force in her town. Seven months previously, her daughter was raped and burned to death, and no one has been arrested yet.
She decides to tell the police chief off through a set of billboards. This embarrasses the terminally ill Andy Griffith-like chief (Woody Harrelson), revered in the town because (or in spite of) the local police’s reputation as torturers of black prisoners. Dixon, his assistanta drunk and sometimes vicious Barney Fife, well-played by Sam Rockwellis far more angry.
Through her bereavement, Mildredas in Piercehas a license to spit venom. It’s role that runs a small gamut. There are little nuggets of surprise embedded in the monotony of her forcefulness. It is a powerful part: kicking kids in the balls, throwing firebombs, maiming a dentist and usually having the last word. But “powerful” is also a term that defines a bully.
One moment of tenderness has Mildred addressing a deer, telling it and the audience that she doesn’t believe it’s a reincarnation of her lost daughter. Yet there is the deerwe’ve seen the symbol of hope, and director-writer Martin McDonagh (In Bruges) gets it both ways.
The surroundings are all rural loveliness, soaked in Carter Burwell’s scoreAsheville, North Carolina, doubles for Missouri, setting a stage that’s a lot more affluent than the characters seem to be. At one point, Dixon collects some evidence the hard way: satisfying to watch, even if it wouldn’t stand the light of day in court. Caleb Landry Jones, of Byzantium, is a relief from the ambient overheatedness as a self-amused billboard salesman. Harrelson is at his most benign as the police chief, even if McDonagh is at his roughest when he tries to write tender.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
R; 115 Mins.
CineArts & AMC Century 14
