Movie Review—Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Theatrical release poster

by Peter J. O’Connell 

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Released: Nov. 2017. Runtime: 115 mins. MPAA Rating: R for violence, language throughout, and some sexual references.

Fargo, North Dakota, and Ebbing, Missouri, are hundreds of miles from each other, but the movies Fargo (1996) and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, have something in common: the brilliance of their makers. Brilliance in creating dark situations with comic aspects in a plot that is never predictable. Brilliance in creating a characteristically mid-American atmosphere. Brilliance in eliciting brilliant performances, particularly from Frances McDormand, the star of both films. (Martin McDonagh, the British writer/director of Ebbing, deserves a special hat tip for ranking up there with Minnesota’s Coen brothers, creators of Fargo, in these categories.)  

Ebbing, Missouri, becomes riled up when three billboards outside the small town suddenly bear a startling message, which reads in sequence: “Raped while dying.” Still no arrests?” “How come, Chief Willoughby?” The reference is to the murder several months earlier of the daughter of Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand), a hardbitten local woman. Mildred is a divorcee deeply grieving over her daughter’s death. Outraged at the lack of progress in the murder investigation, she has rented the billboards.  

Chief of Police Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) is a family man beloved in the town, particularly since it is an open secret that he is dying of cancer. Willoughby is sympathetic toward Mildred but resents the billboards as an attack on his competence. This kind of mixture of motives in the film’s characters reflects the mixture of tones in its presentation.

Mildred and her depressed son, Robbie (Lucas Hedges), are harassed and threatened, including by Mildred’s abusive ex-husband, Charlie (John Hawkes). The most serious harassment, though, is by Willoughby’s deputy, Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell). Deputy Dixon is a Gomer-type, disorganized and possibly racist, who lives with his mother (Sandy Martin) and longs to become a detective.

Just as McDonagh tempers our instinctive sympathy for Mildred by having McDormand play her as hardbitten even beyond the understandable parameters of her sad situation, so, too, he manages to have Rockwell generate some sympathy for what is in many ways a disgusting character. You might say that Rockwell’s performance is a subtle depiction of crudity.

The fires burning inside several characters are unleashed in a night of real fires. Willoughby, indirectly, teaches some hard truths. Dixon, surprisingly, learns them—somewhat. Charlie makes an unexpected confession. A little person—really—(Peter Dinklage) comes to Mildred’s aid, and she later acquires another unlikely ally for an ambiguous mission.

You might not want to go to Ebbing, Missouri, but you should go to this movie. Some of its impact is billboard big, some subtle, but most of it will be lasting.