My feelings were Ebbing and flowing...
...maybe I’ll rent out some billboards to tell you how much, or just write it here.
Here we have the next film from writer/director Martin McDonagh, who is behind dark comedies such as In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths, two excellent films that need to be watched if you haven’t seen them already, and to then be watched many more times after. Three Billboards is already being labelled ‘film of the year’, and the year has barely even started. So with all this endless backing behind the film, does it really live up to the hype? Well yes, yes it does.
So here is a short summary of the film:
After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter’s murder case, Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) makes a bold move, getting three signs leading into her town painting with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby (Woody Harrelson), the town’s deeply respected child of police. When his second-in-command, Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell) - an immature mother’s boy with a past filled with violence - gets involved, the battle is only worsened.
In typical McDonagh style, there are a lot of funnies and a lot of downers, which I think is a very difficult line to walk. This is a film which has an incredibly serious topic of which has nothing to joke about, but he manages to really use humour in the right place so you don’t feel like going away and contemplating the meaning of life, and how awful people and life are, for the next 3 months. That line has been debated recently due to the film The Death of Stalin, where there is a lot of darkness but the film itself is essentially a comedy, and a lot of people didn’t like that.
Anyway, back to Three Billboards. I absolutely loved it, without a doubt. The character development for all the main characters is so well done that you are fully invested right from the off. The performances from every actor are so intense that you are constantly sucked into their world of violence, hatred, racism and all the rest, and believe everything they are saying as if it were real, which in a lot of places around the world it is. For example, the opening scene with Mildred Hayes shows her looking at the billboards and just from her face and body language, you can tell exactly what she is saying to herself in her head, and her intentions for those billboards; and that’s not just because I’ve seen the trailers and know what’s coming.
Woody Harrelson playing a character that you believe is going to be one type of person, then completely flips it and comes out with a very unexpected performance. The highlight for me though is Officer Dixon’s character, played so brilliantly by Sam Rockwell. You go through (excuse me for my terrible use of cliche) an emotional rollercoaster with this guy and you are never not fully invested in his character, whether you love him or hate him.
The only problem, which I’m still debating with myself as to whether I think it’s a problem or not, is the ending. There has been a lot of criticism about the way the film finished, and I agree to the extent that the film does seem to majorly slow down in the last 10-15 minutes. However, I don’t think it’s a bad thing. A lot of twists and turns happen in this film, so just because it eases of the accelerator to slow the film down at the end doesn’t mean the film is ruined. I’ll leave that to you to decide though and let me know what you think of the ending!
That is all from me but like I said, I love this film and to be honest, I agree with the critics and everyone else who is thinking that this could definitely be the film of the year.
As always, remember, this is just one opinion.
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
4.5/5 Exceeds Expectations
So here is a short summary of the film:
After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter’s murder case, Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) makes a bold move, getting three signs leading into her town painting with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby (Woody Harrelson), the town’s deeply respected child of police. When his second-in-command, Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell) - an immature mother’s boy with a past filled with violence - gets involved, the battle is only worsened.
In typical McDonagh style, there are a lot of funnies and a lot of downers, which I think is a very difficult line to walk. This is a film which has an incredibly serious topic of which has nothing to joke about, but he manages to really use humour in the right place so you don’t feel like going away and contemplating the meaning of life, and how awful people and life are, for the next 3 months. That line has been debated recently due to the film The Death of Stalin, where there is a lot of darkness but the film itself is essentially a comedy, and a lot of people didn’t like that.
Anyway, back to Three Billboards. I absolutely loved it, without a doubt. The character development for all the main characters is so well done that you are fully invested right from the off. The performances from every actor are so intense that you are constantly sucked into their world of violence, hatred, racism and all the rest, and believe everything they are saying as if it were real, which in a lot of places around the world it is. For example, the opening scene with Mildred Hayes shows her looking at the billboards and just from her face and body language, you can tell exactly what she is saying to herself in her head, and her intentions for those billboards; and that’s not just because I’ve seen the trailers and know what’s coming.
Woody Harrelson playing a character that you believe is going to be one type of person, then completely flips it and comes out with a very unexpected performance. The highlight for me though is Officer Dixon’s character, played so brilliantly by Sam Rockwell. You go through (excuse me for my terrible use of cliche) an emotional rollercoaster with this guy and you are never not fully invested in his character, whether you love him or hate him.
The only problem, which I’m still debating with myself as to whether I think it’s a problem or not, is the ending. There has been a lot of criticism about the way the film finished, and I agree to the extent that the film does seem to majorly slow down in the last 10-15 minutes. However, I don’t think it’s a bad thing. A lot of twists and turns happen in this film, so just because it eases of the accelerator to slow the film down at the end doesn’t mean the film is ruined. I’ll leave that to you to decide though and let me know what you think of the ending!
That is all from me but like I said, I love this film and to be honest, I agree with the critics and everyone else who is thinking that this could definitely be the film of the year.
As always, remember, this is just one opinion.
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