Three billboards...and a lack of reality

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

There’s a difficult and heartbreaking premise here and some fantastic actors. Unfortunately, the story hits a major speed bump about half way through and doesn’t progress smartly enough beyond it to support its strong start.

This review is probably heresy in the critic world as it seems this film is an early choice for the smart or meaningful pick as best film of the year. Writer/Director writer/director Martin McDonagh appears to be a darling in many critic's eyes...I'm not one of them. And I’m here to do my part to say that this film, while entertaining and devastatingly good in places, isn't one of this, or any year's, best.

Before getting too critical, here’s some of the good (and many parts are very good): 

* Frances McDormand deserves all her accolades. She’s tough, human and wonderful throughout. 

* Woody Harrelson is as good as I’ve seen him in a long while, too. While he’s consistently enjoyable, this performance, with his strength and compassion in the face of very difficult circumstances, rises above. 

* Sam Rockwell is a force of nature. He plays the dark, angry racist cop that terrifies the town and yet somehow keeps his job…until he doesn’t.

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

The story starts with Mildred’s (McDormand) simple question: why hasn’t my daughter’s horrific rape and murder been solved? She lays this at the feet of Chief Willoughby (Harrelson) in dramatic fashion, with three stark billboards in Burma shave storytelling fashion. This is all great and gripping. There are smart and snappy scenes between Mildred and the local priest and a dentist with, let’s just say, a difference of opinion.

The film's problem, for me, comes with the departure of Willoughby. When he kills himself, it’s a shocking moment and a painful loss for the audience as he anchored the film's morality. It seemed he would be the one to try to right the ship or at least steer Mildred in a direction of painful understanding that it can't be righted. That the ship ultimately doesn’t get righted in the manner Mildred wants it is not the problem – if the intended worldview is: "life is messy", that’s completely okay. What isn’t okay is the lack of reality or intelligence that occurs following several actions going forward.

For instance: 

* Willoughby was supposed to handle the dentist’s charges against Mildred. With him gone, that goes nowhere. I don’t believe the dentist is going to be quiet after what she did. 

* The priest, too, for as much as she shut him up in the moment, didn’t strike me as a shrinking violet given his place in this deeply rooted community. I imagine he had something to say…but we never saw it. 

* The worst, though is in Dixon (Rockwell’s) action. He’s not only repugnant in his racist ignorance, but the way he throws Red (Caleb Landry Jones) out a window and doesn’t pay any legal price for it made me insane. Some viewers might howl: but look what happened to him in getting burned and beaten. What about his journey? And to that, I say, so what? You don’t think his ass would have been in jail for that assault? That was his journey, realistically. But it didn't suit McDonagh's needs, apparently. 

Willoughby's presence continues via letters he left behind, which struck me as a bit clunky, but was acceptable to get his influence across. It would have better had he simply not died, but... Sheriff Abercrombie (Clarke Peters) comes in as a great, no-nonsense looking man to replace Willoughby and challenge Dixon and the other racists simply by being black and in charge. After kicking ass initially, he is suddenly neutered by inaction in the script. He simply doesn’t do much beyond fire Dixon. No charges against Dixon? Even though Abercrombie saw the assault? Those things don’t seem to matter to McDonagh.

The other howl out loud awful moment was the journalist. I’m not sure if it was just her acting but the scripting and reality of how she was portrayed were cartoonishly bad. Maybe McDonagh hates journalists, but they're still real human beings and should be given the depth of the intelligence of their jobs, regardless of how one feels about them, on screen. It may just be seeing this paper thin character and representation against the richness of McDormand, Rockwell and Harrelson, but it stunk to holy hell and, again, threw me out of the film’s reality.

Lastly, poor Peter Dinklage. That’s about all I can say because that’s about all he was given in terms of interesting stuff to do on screen. There are the typical midget jokes that he deals with every time in every character, we all get that. But he’s got so much more to present as an actor when he’s not just placed as a throwaway set piece as he was in this role. 

So there it is. If it reads as a complete takedown, it’s probably largely because of what I read from other critics who seem to be wanting to call this the next great film. To be clear, there are great things in the film - but it's not a great film, in my opinion. 

To set the record straight on my opinion of McDonagh – I thought “In Bruges” was excellent and I thought seven psychopaths was…okay.  I’m not familiar with his playwriting, though that seems to be where many of his fans begin their adoration with his work.

The stuff he does well he does extremely well. The flashback scene in this film between Mildred and her daughter on the day she was raped and murdered was a punch to the gut - executed brilliantly.

None of the great moments, however, outweigh the awkwardness or flat out dismissal of reality he offers in other places, making this film good, but ultimately disappointing in my eyes.