Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Came out; 2017
Time; 1 hours 55 Minutes
Watched: HBO Max
Rated: R for violence, language throughout and some sexual references
IMDB Rating; 8.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes:
Tomato Meter 90%
Popcorn Meter 87%
Caution; Spoiler Alert
Staring;
Frances McDormand as Mildred
Woody Harrelson as Willoughby
Sam Rockwell as Dixon
Caleb Landry Jones as Red Welby
Sandy Martin as Momma Dixon
Peter Dinklage as James
Story Line;
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI is a dark comedy/crime drama from Academy Award nominee, Martin McDonagh (In Bruges). After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter's murder case, Mildred Hayes (Academy Award winner, Frances McDormand) makes a bold move; she rents three billboards leading into her town, each with a controversial message directed at Bill Willoughby (Academy Award nominee, Woody Harrelson), the town's revered chief of police. And when Jason Dixon (Academy Award winner, Sam Rockwell), one of Willoughby's officers--an immature mama's boy with a penchant for alcohol and violence--gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing's law enforcement is only exacerbated
Thoughts:
She's credited in the very bottom, but Samara Weaving has a small part in this movie which she nails. She is the reason why this movie was even on our radar
In light of the subject matter this movie was funny and series at the same time.
It had such a “bad thing happened in a small town” feel, where the police aren't great at solving “real” crimes.
CAUTION; Spoiler Alert
Mildred
Hayes (Frances McDormand) is grieving the sexual assault and murder
of her teenage daughter Angela (Kathryn Newton) seven months prior.
Angry over the lack of progress in the investigation, she rents three
abandoned billboards near her home, which in sequence read "R***D
WHILE DYING", "AND STILL NO ARRESTS?", and "HOW
COME, CHIEF WILLOUGHBY?" The 3 Billboards are right next to the
road as it enters the town of Ebbing, one after the other. It is
impossible for anyone entering the town not to see the Billboards or
what is written on them. The Billboards had been last rented out in
1986.
Mildred approaches Red, the owner of the Billboards and
understands the laws around what can or cannot be said on the
Billboards. She rests the Billboards for a year and pays Red $5000 as
rent for the first month.
The billboards upset the
townspeople, including Sheriff Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) and
racist officer Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell). They attract attention, so
Bill Willoughby, the local chief of police, visits Mildred, but is
unable to persuade her to take them down, even by revealing he has
terminal pancreatic cancer.
Willoughby is a good man, but
Mildred is not willing to let the matter slide. Willoughby says that
he cannot do anything as the DNA found on Angela's body does not
match any known criminal nationwide and there is not even a single
eyewitness. Mildred wants the DNA of every person in the town tested
to find the killer. Willoughby says that citizen civil rights do not
allow for that, and the killer could also simply be passing by the
town. He renews his efforts to solve the case but does not get
anywhere.
Many townspeople are upset by the billboards,
including Jason Dixon. Mildred and her depressed son Robbie (Lucas
Hedges) are harassed and threatened, but she stays firm, to Robbie's
chagrin. Robbie is subjected to bullying at school on account of the
Billboards. Father Montgomery (Nick Searcy) admonishes Mildred for
abandoning church and says that the whole town supports her on
Angela, but nobody supports her in her campaign against Willoughby.
Mildred accuses Montgomery of being culpable for the actions of the
Church (including priests having underage sex with boys), and
compared the Church to a street gang and a club where the members
protect each other.
While Willoughby is sympathetic to
Mildred's frustration, he finds the billboards an unfair attack on
his character. Angered by Mildred's lack of respect for his
authority, Dixon threatens Red (Caleb Landry Jones), who rented her
the billboards, and arrests her friend and coworker, Denise (Amanda
Warren), on trivial marijuana-possession charges.
The
billboards have further strained Mildred's relationship with her son,
Robbie, and she recalls that her last interaction with Angela was an
argument (during which she lashed back by saying she "hoped she
was sexually assaulted"). Her abusive ex-cop ex-husband Charlie
((John Hawkes) confronts her about the billboards and ends up
revealing that, shortly before Angela's murder, he had turned down
her request to come live with him. Charlie blames Mildred for their
daughter's death.
Mildred's dentist is sympathetic to
Willoughby and menaces her during an appointment (by trying to
extract her tooth without any painkillers), so she drills a hole in
his thumbnail. Willoughby brings her in for questioning. Milred
maintains that she did not attack the dentist and that his hand
slipped and he injured himself. During the interview, Willoughby
coughs up blood. He has her released and is hospitalized. He leaves
the hospital against medical advice and spends an idyllic day with
his wife Anne (Abbie Cornish) and daughters, before committing
suicide to spare his family from watching him die slowly.
Before
his death, Willoughby wrote several letters, including one to
Mildred. Anne delivers it, interrupting an unknown man who was
menacing Mildred at work. In the letter, Willoughby tells Mildred
that she was not a factor in his suicide, asserts he was dedicated to
finding Angela's killer and reveals he secretly paid to keep the
billboards up another month.
Dixon reacts to the news of
Willoughby's death by assaulting Red Welby and his assistant. This is
witnessed by Willoughby's replacement, Abercrombie (Clarke Peters),
who fires him.
The billboards are destroyed by arson. Mildred
retaliates by tossing Molotov cocktails at the police station, which
she believes is unoccupied for the night. However, Dixon is there to
read a letter left for him by Willoughby, advising him to let go of
hate and learn to love as the only way to realize his wish to become
a detective. Dixon escapes with Angela's case files, suffering severe
burns.
Mildred's acquaintance James (Peter Dinklage) witnesses
the incident and provides Mildred with an alibi, claiming they were
on a date. Dixon is put in the same hospital room as Red, to whom he
apologizes.
Discharged from the hospital, Dixon overhears the
man who threatened Mildred bragging in a bar of an incident similar
to Angela's murder. He notes the Idaho license plate number of the
man's vehicle, then scratches the man's face to get a DNA sample,
passively accepting the resulting beating. At home, he removes a
sample of the man's DNA.
Meanwhile, Mildred goes on a date to
thank James for the alibi. Charlie enters with his 19-year old
girlfriend Penelope (Samara Weaving), and admits to burning the
billboards. Mildred instructs Charlie to treat Penelope well and
leaves. Unnerved that she retaliated against the wrong target,
Mildred abruptly calls off the date, but James misinterprets her
decision as embarrassment to be seen with him and leaves the
restaurant incensed.
Abercrombie informs Dixon that the DNA
sample is not a match and the man was overseas on military duty at
the time of Angela's death. Dixon gives Mildred the disappointing
news and, believing the man to be guilty of some other sexual
assault, the pair plan a trip to Idaho to kill him. As they set out,
Mildred confesses that she set the police station on fire, which
Dixon had already assumed. They both express uncertainty about their
mission, but Mildred says they can decide what to do along the way
Sources
IMBD
Rotten Tomatoes
Wikipedia
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