Saturday 6 January 2018

Review: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

A flat sounding title for a in-depth character study of the torment of loss in violent circumstances. The trailer gives away the key idea so I'll expound a little.

Dormund breathes steel into her Western inspired vengeful woman's gotta do what a woman's gotta do character. Grief has stripped away everything except Biblical level anger and determination to find out what has happened to her daughter.

Things escalate real quickly and occasionally gruesomely.

Harrelson's local sheriff plays against type as the local authority figure who's the target of her ire.  He's reasonable and understanding, but got problems of his own.

But perhaps surprisingly, it's Rockwell's red neck cop who takes the most surprising journey. I'll stay nothing more, but it's an outstanding performance which could have easily been the centrepiece of a different film.

Lastly, this all sounds gloomy, but the script is laden with Dormund's character's profanity soaked and witty tear downs of others. The plot also dances around expectations - sometimes delivering, sometimes subverting tropes.

Verdict: Catch Dormund's updating of the Western.


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