Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri review - An extremely good, if misguided, film.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a good film. In fact, it's a very good film. A masterful take on black comedy, with powerful acting throughout and beautiful cinematography a focus throughout - Three Billboards is no doubt deserving of the praise it is getting as a piece of cinema. However, the messages it sends through its narrative and characters may be tone deaf, and misguided in a political landscape as volatile as the one of 21st Century America - preaching forgiveness no matter what at times, but completely irrational acts of violence at others. The positives of the film are still evident from the very outset. Three Billboards brings out a career performance from Frances McDormand as the kick-ass Mildred Hayes - her performance brings the fire to a role which could have easily fallen flat with a less supreme performance - to hear any name other than McDormand's called out at the Oscars would be a true shock. Woody Harrelson makes the character of Chief William Willoughby - a character who is somewhat polarising from the point of view of the audience, in part due to the actions of Mildred - seem far too likable. That may appear negative, but it continues to add charm to a film which is loaded to the brim with it - Harrelson's performance another which could be called out at the Oscars. Martin McDonagh's witty scriptwriting remains evident through the movie - a plot about the rape and murder of a teenage girl, and seeking answers from a racist, corrupt police force should not be funny, but it somehow is. Be it through the abruptness of Mildred Hayes, a character who fails to channel her thoughts to please the Zeitgeist, or through the bumbling comedy of incompetent officer Dixon, who is represented as the village idiot throughout without resorting to pure slapstick, McDonagh's writing provokes frequent laughs. However, the focus on laughter leads to a lot of oversight in how the character's develop. A film about resisting the police force, calling them out for incompetency, racism and the like, should (in fact, must) be tasteful. When tensions between African Americans and the police force are so high, the representations of these events must be carefully handled. This is where Three Billboards finds its biggest misgiving. Dixon is downright honest about the fact he has engaged in police brutality towards black men - be it through genuine bragging, or character stupidity. But instead of him being vilified, it gets a full-blown redemption storyline - without his racist past ever being addressed. Whether intentional or not, McDonagh's script seems to overlook the racial issues it raises in the very first place, in favour of provoking the audience into forgiving the racist officer, making him out to be some lovable character. If not the intention of McDonagh's writing, it still comes across as very heavy-handed, and extremely ill-sighted given the current political landscape. All things considered, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri is an excellent piece of film. However, the bizarre, tonedeaf focus on a redemption storyline eventually takes away from the masterful acting, and beautifully written black comedy - to stop Three Billboards from truly becoming a classic. 8.5/10