November 10, 2017 2 min to read

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

3 Billboards is a morally ambiguous masterpiece, and Frances McDormand's performance is legendary.

by Zach Saul

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a movie for anyone who’s ever felt angry, and helpless against injustice going on in the world around them. On the surface this is a regular vigilante story about a woman who takes matters into her own hands to solve her daughter’s murder. However, what Mildrid (Frances McDormand) encounters in her quest for answers is that anger seems to be contagious and gamesmanship, and fear is the true motivation behind everyone’s actions. Mildrid fears the death of her daughter is her fault, Dixon fears he might actually be a racist, and Chief Willoughby fears he’s lost a grasp on his department.

What makes 3 Billboards stand out from the numerous other movies in the genre is the tone director Martin McDonagh takes navigating murder, death sorrow, and anguish. Instead of aggrandizing and making spectacle of the pain his characters feel he aggrandizes their anger - which makes it easy to poke fun at it. Despite the discomfort I felt laughing in certain parts of this movie its clear by the end 3 Billboards is intended to be deeply funny, and there’s a beauty in characters who the face of tragedy can laugh at their more reptilian responses.

This movie make me think about a really interesting concept in psychology called “the fundamental attribution error” which (in short) is the theory that we’re more likely to attribute tragedy that happens to us to circumstance, and when the tragedy affects someone else were more likely to blame their behavior or character. Despite their pleas Mildrid refuses to give credence to the possibility it was external factors that prevented police from solving her daughters’ murders. Then spoiler alert when Chief Willoughby sends a note from “the beyond” saying he hopes they get lucky and they overhear something at a bar that exact scenario takes place. It’s almost as if in order to move forward the chief had to acknowledge Mildrid’s anger was understandable and noble, and she in turn had to accept perhaps he wasn’t the enemy.

The Good: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is deeply funny, well shot, and has an outstanding sound score. Frances McDormand gives a really phenomenal and nuanced performance and is catapulted by a sneakily talented cast including Woody Harrelson, Caleb Landry, and Peter Dinklage.

The Bad: I think this movie is about 20 minutes too long. The end of the movie friendship between Mildrid and Dixon was an interesting plot point but it felt to me that McDonagh wasn’t 100% sure what to do with it, and I left the theater unsure what to make of their friendship.