Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Directed & Written by: Martin McDonagh
Starring: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell

As I was watching Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, I felt that the film had no characters that I could get behind. While I could understand their motivation, it didn't excuse their behaviour, and often their behavior was unconscionable. This changed for me at the midway point when Chief Willoughby takes his own life, leaving letters for his wife, Mildred, and Dixon. I had seen Willoughby as an antagonist because Mildred is the protagonist. She feels that the local police aren't doing enough to find her daughter's killer, and the purchase of the three billboards is what kicks off the story. Even without the billboards, Willoughby would have still taken his own life, but perhaps the events that directly follow the suicide would not have happened. Dixon's violence, firing, and redemption.

Dixon changes more than Mildred. It's fitting that the end of the film is the two driving to Idaho to murder a man who they are not quite sure is a rapist. It's as if their anger and vengeance is dissipating. Whether it's because of their close proximity to each other or just what they've gone through, I am unsure. I think Mildred is so twisted up inside, that the only person who can be near her without setting her off is someone like Dixon. That's why the dinner with James is so depressing. James comes across as a good man. Mildred is too damaged for a good man. Maybe she always was, considering her ex-husband. I wonder about him, for the ditzy 19 year old he's parading around doesn't seem to set off his rage like Mildred. He even says to her at the end that anger just begets greater anger. Mildred is like a radiator, her anger glowing even in the one scene we get before the death of her daughter.

There's an undercurrent of black humour. The previous film by Martin McDonagh was Seven Psychopaths. While violent, it was funny. Three Billboards has humour, but it feels sub-textual. Like the whole story is a farce. For instance, in the letter Willoughby writes Mildred, he mentions that a lot of these types of crimes get solved by the killer being overheard in a bar. Sure enough, Dixon overhears someone discussing a similar crime while drinking, gets beat up in order to grab his DNA, and when the tests come back, it turns out this guy wasn't even in the country when Angela was killed. The scenes between Mildred and Willoughby or Mildred and Dixon in the police station have a fencing quality to them as barbs are tossed back and forth. Dixon for all his violence and racism is a joke of a man. The film is telling us to laugh at him. That the ending leaves things unresolved also feels like a dark joke. That this is just how life goes. It sucks doesn't it? Maybe if someone learned something, than it makes things a little better. Dixon gives Mildred some hope at the end of the film, just as their doubt in the excursion to Idaho gives the viewer a little hope that maybe things won't get worse by seeing this through.

Personal enjoyment: ★★★★