Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

The Critics Choice Award nominations will be announced tomorrow. Unlike last year, they will not have a supremely truncated schedule, for they will be held on January 11th. A title that's sure to pop up somewhere a few times is the dark comedy Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri.

Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) isn't happy with the world right now. Her daughter, Angela (Kathryn Newton), was raped and murdered seven months ago. The police haven't found a culprit. She finds three abandoned billboards and rents them from Red Welby's (Caleb Landry Jones) ad agency. They ask, in sequence, "Raped while dying and still no arrests. How come Chief Willoughby?"  Chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) is regarded as a paragon of virtue in the community. So the townsfolks don't take kindly to the perceived attack on his competence. Even the townsfolks sympathetic to Mildred's plight see the billboards as a step too far.

Willoughby wants to help Mildred crack the case but he's sidelined by legal regulations and his terminal cancer. His deputy Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell) wants Mildred to take down the billboards yesterday. Her ex-husband Charlie (John Hawkes) also wants the billboards down. Mildred's bitter with the world. It eventually escalates when Willoughby finally dies. But will the billboards yield any positive results?

Director Martin McDonagh's screenplay gets its audience laughing with its audaciously casual dialogue. You won't forget the things Mildred or the Cops have to say. One particularly funny scene has Dixon fail to notice Mildred setting his own station on fire until it's too late. It also has a few shocking unfunny moments like Dixon's assault on Red Welby. Penelope (Samara Weaving), Charlie's much-younger girlfriend, is the much-needed light comic relief. She even accidentally provides the theme of the movie.

Mildred is a compelling lead even if her anger makes her lash out in unsympathetic ways. When Willoughby tells her he has cancer, she says she knows and she's still bitter about the lack of progress on her case. Meanwhile, Dixon's bad cop attitude makes him out to be a bumbling, albeit violent idiot. His attack on Red Welby was so disturbing it made his getting fired by Abbercrombie (Clarke Peters), Willoughby's replacement, utterly satisfying. Both of them learn to be better people later on, and it's surprising that even Dixon is capable of redemption.

Ben Davis's cinematography sets the mood perfectly as it introduces the billboards in a foggy morning. We first hear the mournful The Last Rose of Summer, the film's main theme, here. Davis's night photography is also striking, as is his long take of Dixon's aforementioned attack on Red. Carter Burwell's score is also another memorable soundtrack. Jon Gregory's editing keeps the film nice, tense and funny for 115 minutes.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri may amuse or depress you, but its story is resonant. It's a story of overcoming anger and why it's important to treat others, even disagreeable folks, nicely. It's also a story of people, like Willoughby, who are trying their best to do the right thing. Its themes stick thanks to its candor and characters. Its ending leaves us hanging but it leaves us to assume cooler heads will prevail. It's a truly dark comedy, so be prepared if you see it. You might not regret it if you do.