#StokerScore: 9/10
I really like Frances McDormand. She has been in so many great movies and they were made greater in part because of her acting ability. I remember her mainly for Fargo, an example of one of many roles she's played in Coen Brothers movies, but also for the deputy's put-upon wife in Mississippi Burning who shows us Gene Hackman's softer side. In this film from the writer and director of In Bruges, she's a divorced mother of two who's teenage daughter was raped and murdered a year before the events of the movie. She lives with her son, works in a local gift shop, and has a blunt, familiar relationship with the towns inhabitants that suggest she was born in Ebbing and has never left.
The three billboards of the title are used by Mildred to try to shame the town's police chief into solving the death of her daughter and, as things get more heated and assumptions are made, the town and its inhabitants are faced with their own personal reasons for how they view the impact of the billboards.
The supporting cast is excellent with Woody Harrelson as the police chief and Sam Rockwell standing out as a bigoted deputy. The only character who I felt was miscast was Caleb Landry Jones' town estate agent, who just seemed too young and immature for the job he was doing.
Suffice to say that this, like In Briuges, is a comedy with dramatic overtones to the point that you will be laughing at some of the actions only to then be shocked at the brutality of responses.
Easily one of my favourite films of the year.
No comments:
Post a Comment