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McDormand’s Mildred Hayes is simply a mother consumed by grief and anger - because nine months before the film begins, her teenage daughter was found raped and murdered, burned to death on a remote road where three empty, tattered billboards stood.ĭesperate to shame the police into restarting a stalled investigation, Mildred pays $5,000 to have messages put on the billboards: “RAPED WHILE DYING” on the first, “AND STILL NO ARRESTS?” on the second and “HOW COME, CHIEF WILLOUGHBY?” on the third.Ĭhief Willoughby, understandably, doesn’t like the billboards, though, as played by Woody Harrelson, he’s a man of considerably more nuance than you might expect. This is classic McDonagh: very funny, very violent and surprisingly moving.Īt first, “Three Billboards,” which premiered on Monday at the Venice International Film Festival, seems quieter and more sober than McDonagh’s first two features, the wickedly dark “In Bruges” and the thoroughly depraved “Seven Psychopaths.” The lead characters in those films were a pair of hitmen on the run and a screenwriter summoning up a passel of, well, psychopaths, and there was a glee and relish to the violence - as there was to the carnage he put onstage in raw and exhilarating plays like “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” and “A Beheading in Spokane.”Īlso Read: 'The Shape of Water' Review: Guillermo del Toro's Glorious Romance Blends Horror and Delightīut the lead character in “Three Billboards” is neither a psychopath nor inclined toward bloodletting, at least not at first. Irish playwright and director Martin McDonagh may be the maestro of black humor, but he sets himself a nearly impossible task with his new film, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” The fact that he pretty much pulls it off is a tribute not only to McDonagh’s skills as a dramatist, but also to a cast headed by the indomitable Frances McDormand and including Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell.