7 months after the rape and murder of her teenage daughter Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) hires the use of three run-down billboards located near her home and the site of her daughter's death. Frustrated with the police's lack of progress in identifying the criminal she pays her them to read "Raped while dying", "And still no arrests?", and "How come, Chief Willoughby?" The police view this is a personal attack and thus begins a war between a grieving mother and a conservative small town police department.
As always McDormand is great in the lead but her role is more subdued here than one might think from the initial plot. As the film progresses Mildred begins to fade into more of ensemble of intriguing small town characters, particularly that of the Ebbing police department. Chief Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) is never portrayed as the villain he could he here, nor does Mildred's character hate him, but the fact she has no closure regarding her daughters death. The news that he is suffering from terminal pancreatic cancer adds another interesting dimension to his and Mildred's game of trying to best one another, but is also hinders the films ability to show truly enraged characters and therefore to emotionally move the audience as much as the film could have.
The closest we get is openly racist and seemingly incompetnet Officer Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell) who snaps after a particularly fatal blow for the Ebbing police department and brutally assaults Red Welby (Caleb Landry Jones), the advertiser Mildred is paying to maintain the billboards. Unfortunately, what the film excels at in creating three-dinmenisonal characters is also its downfall. We see the fervent passion of love and hate from both sides of what turns out to be mostly a series of misunderstandings and minor differences, but ultimately all the characters still remain human enough to be understood and related to by the and receive redemption by the films end.
Rating: 3.5/5
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