****
After months without answers as to who murdered her daughter, Mildred hires three billboards outside her home town of Ebbing, Missouri, in the hope of focusing the minds of the local police department on the case. What follows is a string of events that no one could have foreseen...
Martin McDonagh is an exceptional screenwriter and storyteller. In his debut film, In Bruges, he transplanted two mismatched hitmen into the aforementioned city and allowed us to watch as the bizarre events unfolded. His follow up, Seven Psychopaths, was similarly outrageous, this time focusing around the kidnapping of a beloved pooch. In Three Billboards, the decision to apply questioning slogans upon a set of run-down signs sparks a dramatic fall out. Never one to shy away from an odd initial set up, what links McDonagh's films is his ability to fuse reprehensible characters with moments of shocking violence and laugh-out-loud dark humour in one seamless flick of his pen. Add the acting chops of Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell into the mix and you know you're in for a real cinematic treat.
In an interview, McDonagh said: 'I walk the line between comedy and cruelty because I think one illuminates the other'. And whilst I would argue that this is true of In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths, Three Billboards walks a far darker path. Less a comedy (although there certainly are moments of mirth to be found) and more a contemplation on human behaviour, McDonagh's latest makes for a thought-provoking and emotive watch, thanks to its synergy of philosophy and violence. At the centre of it all is Mildred (the outstanding Frances McDormand) who, grieving after the horrific murder of her daughter, is trying to find answers. Strong and outspoken on the surface - she's certainly not one to shy away from bad language and aggression - McDonagh and McDormand slowly reveal a fragility to the character that is initially unexpected. Interestingly, we are not always on Mildred's side either - she can disgust us as much as she can provoke sympathy - and this morally ambiguous nature can be recognised in each of the central characters. Indeed, solving the murder case at the heart of the story becomes secondary - we become more interested in solving the riddle of the people in the town of Ebbing itself, a factor that will undoubtedly frustrate some viewers.
Not the experience I was expecting to have after McDonagh's previous two outings, I found Three Billboards to be a piece of ponderous, borderline philosophical, film making. Darkly amusing at moments, and yet peppered with outbreaks of violence that are at times shocking, you find yourself wrapped up in the multi-faceted, problematically human lives of the intriguing characters.
Comments
Post a Comment