3 Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 1:14 pm
3 Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Martin McDonough wrote a darkly comic, dramatic movie about loss, grief, and redemption.
The movie opens with Mildred Hayes (Frances Mcdormand) eyeing three nearly abandoned billboards on a back road. It’s been months since her daughter, Angela, was brutally raped and then burnt to death with no solution, no suspect, no explanation. Mildred isn’t handling that loss well and so begins a story.
Sheriff Willoughby (who is dying of pancreatic cancer played by Woody Harrelson), and Deputy Dixon (a racist pig played by Sam Rockwell) don’t like the Billboards. Mildred’s estranged husband, her son, the town midget (because McDonough likes Peter Dinklage), the gay young man who runs the advertising company, Sheriff Willoughby’s wife, and the townsfolk all become involved in the turmoil and aftermath created by the death of Mildred’s daughter, the death of Sheriff Willoughby, and the near death of Deputy Dixon, and ultimately three billboards.
How does anyone deal with the loss of a child when the loss is so horrific and so devastating? What does one do when facing the darkness of death? What path leads to resolution and redemption? How do we, all of us, deal with the worst of times?
Frances McDormond won Best Actress at the Academy Awards.
Sam Rockwell won Best Supporting Actor.
Let me add a thought - - There are many dramas (I’m thinking of big dramas like Hamlet, Tosca, Steel Magnolias, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, to name a few) that have uplifting resolutions. This movie doesn’t have that “uplifting” resolution. It achieves its tale of redemption without a happy ending. Why would anyone expect Martin McDonough to write a happy ending?
Martin McDonough wrote a darkly comic, dramatic movie about loss, grief, and redemption.
The movie opens with Mildred Hayes (Frances Mcdormand) eyeing three nearly abandoned billboards on a back road. It’s been months since her daughter, Angela, was brutally raped and then burnt to death with no solution, no suspect, no explanation. Mildred isn’t handling that loss well and so begins a story.
Sheriff Willoughby (who is dying of pancreatic cancer played by Woody Harrelson), and Deputy Dixon (a racist pig played by Sam Rockwell) don’t like the Billboards. Mildred’s estranged husband, her son, the town midget (because McDonough likes Peter Dinklage), the gay young man who runs the advertising company, Sheriff Willoughby’s wife, and the townsfolk all become involved in the turmoil and aftermath created by the death of Mildred’s daughter, the death of Sheriff Willoughby, and the near death of Deputy Dixon, and ultimately three billboards.
How does anyone deal with the loss of a child when the loss is so horrific and so devastating? What does one do when facing the darkness of death? What path leads to resolution and redemption? How do we, all of us, deal with the worst of times?
Frances McDormond won Best Actress at the Academy Awards.
Sam Rockwell won Best Supporting Actor.
Let me add a thought - - There are many dramas (I’m thinking of big dramas like Hamlet, Tosca, Steel Magnolias, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, to name a few) that have uplifting resolutions. This movie doesn’t have that “uplifting” resolution. It achieves its tale of redemption without a happy ending. Why would anyone expect Martin McDonough to write a happy ending?