Monday, November 27, 2017

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Movie Review

Woody Harrelson & Frances McDormand (r) star in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Saved by the Bell?

Rotten Tomatoes Plot: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a darkly comic drama from Academy Award winner Martin McDonagh (In Bruges.) After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter's murder case, Mildred Hayes (Academy Award winner Frances McDormand) makes a bold move, painting three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby (Academy Award nominee Woody Harrelson), the town's revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell), an immature mother's boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing's law enforcement is only exacerbated.


"Anger begets greater anger," in McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, a black comedy with an emphasis on black. As for why, look no further than McDormand's Mildred, a mother hell-bent on avenging her daughter's death... even if the object of her ire (Harrelson) is the nicest guy in town. It starts off slow, but give it time. Before you know it, mayhem ensues, and the fictional town of Ebbing becomes engulfed (sometimes literally) in flames. Chock-full of golden moments (ABBA's Chiquita, violence galore) and a trio of stellar performances (Harrelson, McDormand & Rockwell.) Not necessarily top-10, but creative/engrossing.

Grade: B