There’s a low-lying tension to every exchange with police, with the implication that the wrong move, the wrong word, or, more simply, the wrong skin colour, can lead to aggression at a moment’s notice. The local police exercise their power over Ebbing in the manner of the blunt weapon they carry their bigotry - townspeople speak casually about their abuse and targeting of African-Americans - is about as subtle as a smack to the temple. The setting is the titular town of Ebbing, Missouri, and while the city is fictional, McDonagh establishes a background that taps into the tensions and conflicts permeating present-day America (McDonagh’s choice to set his film in the same state as Ferguson cannot be mere coincidence). With Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, McDonagh returns to the balance of In Bruges, though paradoxically this is achieved through characters and a setting defined by their division. The jarring tonal shifts in his screenplays - from hilarious, acrid dialogue to stabs at a sort of existential poignancy - neatly co-existed in his first feature and clashed in his second.
The true diamond, though, is Sam Rockwell's dim-witted cop Dixon, the racist lunk whose surprise redemption is this superb film's final coup de grace.In his acclaimed debut In Bruges and follow-up Seven Psychopaths, writer/director/playwright Martin McDonagh showcased a penchant for bleak humour and even bleaker drama.
McDormand is at her fiery best in the lead, often testing our sympathies by refusing to accept the stark realities of the seemingly uncrackable case, and Harrelson takes the happy-go-lucky sheriff into heartbreaking scenes that leave comedy far behind. Hayes, however, is not to be deterred, and her show of defiance kick-starts a beautifully scripted and characterful black comedy that turns expertly, and effortlessly, on a dime. Frances McDormand stars as Mildred Hayes, whose attempts to shame the town sheriff (Woody Harrelson) into action rankles with the local population, not least because he's a well-liked, well-meaning family man.
A desperate mother backing an ad campaign to find her daughter's killer might seem like the premise for your average inspirational underdog story, but In Bruges writer/director Martin McDonagh's Oscar-winning film is a far more nuanced proposition than that.
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