Victory of emotions

Johnson Thomas

Frances (Fargo) McDormand, as Mildred Hayes, a recently divorced mother who lost her daughter, Angela, less than a year ago, to a brutal rape and murder crime, is her angry best in this movie. 

The case has apparently gone cold because there’s no matching DNA. Hayes channelises her anger by hiring three barren billboards on a rarely travelled road to ask pertinent questions of the local police chief Willoughby (Woody Harelson) and his team. And it’s what happens after, that makes this drama so fertile and intriguing. Local media goes aflutter, the unexpected attention sparks a series of events involving police second-in-command, Dixon (Sam Rockwell), who exhibits his racist, homophobic tendencies in extremes. Hayes is not one to back down though, even though pressure mounts from all sides - including her ex-husband who deserted her and her two teenage children. 

Writer-director McDonagh doesn’t allow his focus to wander back in time to find out what happened to Angela on that fateful day. Instead, his focus is aimed at bringing catharsis to the family and immediate people involved in solving the case. And it’s not an easy watch because you can feel the raw, lacerative grief that turns into anger at the injustice of it all, in every frame. The path to absolution is never easy and the turn the main characters take along the way makes the takeaway here very impressive indeed. 

Regular nice guy Sam Rockwell goes out of his skin to make Dixon, the brutish racist, homophobe, look real; Harrelson makes Willoughby look good despite his warts but it is Frances McDormand who makes the biggest impact. Her grief, anger, rage and pain underneath it all, are so stunningly palpable that you just want to cheer her on even when you know she is putting others at risk. This is a film that is passionate about giving hope to those who have little reason to expect it. 

McDonagh’s brilliant scripting and direction combines with Carter Burwell’s passion fuelled choice of music, while Ben Davis’ cinematography making the visual experience feel just as trying and turbulent as Hayes emotions. This is one of those rare, fully realised works of cinema and it would be sacrilege if you missed it.