Directed by: Martin McDonagh
Starring: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, and Sam Rockwell
7/10
This was a much ballyhooed film last year that tells the story of a mother’s (McDormand) determination to get the police to solve her daughter’s rape and murder. The police had little evidence to go on so are no longer investigating. The mother sets up three billboards on a backroad that embarrass the police, turn much of the town against her, but get gears turning.
The setting is rural Missouri, solid Red country. The police (Harrelson, Rockwell) are often depicted as inept, uninterested, and racist, though two of them eventually try their best. Fine performances from McDormand and Harrelson. The director’s look at Missouri is reminiscent of the Coens’ look at Minnesota in Fargo. Local folkways are supposed to be quirky and engaging. The Coens pulled it off. McDonagh doesn’t. Townspeople are generally obnoxious louts. For all the tragedy and earnestness in the film, there’s no one very likable in it – not even the mother. Her humanity comes through only rarely, and unfortunately for the film, her nastiness overwhelms it. The filmmakers wanted to avoid the cliché of a saintly figure bucking the system and they succeeded wildly.
Toward the end one of the policemen tries his best to get the killer but goes down a dead end. He and the mother set out to hunt down another rapist – rifle in the backseat. The twist was interesting enough to bump my grade from a six to a seven.
© 2019 Brian M Downing
Brian M Downing is a national security analyst who’s written for outlets across the political spectrum. He studied at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago, and did post-graduate work at Harvard’s Center for International Affairs.
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