I would image that writer / Director Martin McDonagh is confident his latest film is worthy of such consideration. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (yes, that really is its name) is a story of right v wrong, forgiveness v revenge, light v dark and death v rebirth set against the foreground of post industrial rural America adrift in a world that has left previous certainties behind. Frances McDormand plays Mildred Hayes, a woman who's daughter was raped and murdered less than a year prior to the film's opening. The town's police have made almost no progress in investigating the murder, and have a better reputation for assaulting prisoners than solving crimes, so Mildred resolves to hire three disused billboards outside the town and express her frustration publicly.
In Trump's America this act takes on a political dimension mirroring the election of the 45th president, overwhelmingly voted for by disenfranchised post-industrial communities in the 'fly-over' states. The vote felt like a scream of pain into the abyss. Without any real policy or plan, Trump offered himself up as the anti-establishment candidate, a vote for him was billed as a cathartic vote against the Washington elites. Like Trump, will Midred's billboards actually make any difference to those who so eagerly put them in place? Probably not - but she doesn't seem to care. To her, the act of defiance in the face of the establishment is an end in itself.
The establishment here are personified by the police, played with no small amount of swagger by Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell. Harrelson is police chief Willoughby, initially the antagonist identified as the bad guy of the piece by Maldred's billboards, Rockwell is Dixon - the redneck racist who drinks, fights and lives with his oppressive mother. Each seem trapped by the hopelessness of an America fallen into ruin. Even though Harrelson's character is the more likeable and seems genuinely crestfallen at his own inability to find a killer, an illness allows him no peace or escape from Ebbing's terminal decline.
Like McDonagh's superb In Bruges, Three Billboards plays out like a modern fable. Characters are possessed of great wisdom when required, characters are possessed of great stupidity when needed too. Vengeance is shown to be something that's an incredibly strong force, but ultimately hollow and only part of a cycle that leads to more violence. Each of Hayes, Willoughby and Dixon try to get vengeance over someone or something they perceive to have wronged them - each fail. Each of those characters are reborn in a sense, perhaps seeing the world in a new way. When the final scene fades to black with our our anti-heroes heading towards an uncertain future, the fact that they're questioning their motives at all shows how far they've come. Three Billboards is a wonderful fairy tale that channels a lot about what has gone wrong in America in the 21st century. It's a deeply moving on an emotional level, but never stops being blackly humourous as we are encouraged to laugh into the face of the abyss along with its characters. An excellent start to the year in cinema.
This is the best film I have seen in ages. There is real depth in each of the characters. The ending is evocative; it promotes debate and opinion as a good film should.
ReplyDelete