Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Film has the potential to be one of the most impactful forms of media because it excites the most senses: we can see, hear, and emotionally feel for everything that is happening on screen. We don’t always need big spectacles to do this for us either; sometimes, the smaller and more intimate a film is, the more impact it can have on the viewer.

I recently saw Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, a well-written character-driven mystery that has at its core a really unique portrayal of forgiveness and reconciliation. I think for a time like we are in now, this is a film that everybody must see. It doesn’t become overly political, and it doesn’t try to force these hefty themes: it simply tells a human story.

The most central element to Three Billboards is the writing, both of the story and the screenplay. Martin McDonagh, the film’s director and writer, is actually best known for his plays, and that style of writing shows up constantly in this film. The dialogue is meaty, yet not overcomplicated (as well as pretty darkly comedic), and it makes a lot of the film’s characters have more depth than one might think. The same can be said of the story: it makes the characters grow and grow and grow until they have almost done a complete turn by the film’s end.

The acting in Three Billboards only adds to the characters’ development. Frances McDormand gives one of the best performances I have seen all year; in fact, I think the Academy should just kill the suspense and give her her Oscar now. She has so much depth and ferocity as this broken mother who feels responsible for her daughter’s rape and murder, and it is incredibly clear that McDonagh wrote this role for her. Sam Rockwell also does great work as Dixon, an overbearing police officer with a little bit of prejudice. He has one of the toughest roles to play in the film, and he does so nearly perfectly. Woody Harrelson, Peter Dinklage, and Lucas Hedges round out this stellar cast and all give fine performances.

I think that Three Billboards has very little in the way of flaws, but one of these is the film’s ending. I won’t get into what happens exactly, but it left me a little disappointed. It is a very ambiguous conclusion that does work within the themes of the film, but its ambiguity leaves a lot of questions in my mind as to what exactly the film’s final moments mean. At times I love ambiguous endings, but this one just didn’t fit as well as it could have.

Other than that, Three Billboards is more or less a perfect film with its impeccable direction and dialogue and performances that any aspiring actor should take notes on. It definitely deserves most of the awards that are bound to come its way, with its timely themes and great execution; just don’t go into it looking for answers for every question it asks.

My recommendation: Definitely see it.

My grade: 93/100