The Movie: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The Director: Martin McDonagh
The Cast: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Caleb Landry Jones, Abbie Cornish, Lucas Hedges, Zeljko Ivanek, Peter Dinklage, John Hawkes, Samara Weaving
The Story: A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder when they fail to catch the culprit.
The Review:
This movie, along with its entire cast, has been getting tons of praise and is being hailed as a contender for multiple academy awards. Is it really that good? For me...not quite. The story meanders along and largely depends on McDormand's character spewing profanities and coming up with all sorts of different "No she didn't!" type moments to keep the audience entertained. Honestly, if it wasn't for the stellar cast this movie is just slightly above average.
When it comes to casting, you can't go wrong with putting Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, and Sam Rockwell on screen at the same time and boy do they deliver the goods. Caleb Landry Jones, Lucas Hedges, Peter Dinklage, and John Hawkes also turn in great performances but with limited screen time.
For me, the dynamic between McDormand and Hedges as dysfunctional mother and son could and should have been the centerpiece to the story with her fight with authority taking a much lesser role. This would have punctuated all of the other story lines quite nicely since they all dealt with dysfunctional family dynamics in one way or another.
The Verdict:
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a very good movie that is filled with some amazing performances. There may not be a better ensemble cast in any other film this year. A little tweaking here and there and this movie could have been something even more special than it already is.
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