2.5 stars out of 5
For quite a while in its nearly two-hour running time, I genuinely liked this movie despite some gaping flaws. It certainly has a lot going for it: compelling story (grieving mom rents billboards to shame police who didn’t solve her daughter’s murder), strong cast, scenic small-town setting. And it looked like there was even a “Black Lives Matter” undercurrent in the mix. Still, certain elements gnawed at me. The advertising agency that owns the billboards is directly across the street from the police department? Really?!? And Sam Rockwell’s character, a dumb-as-mud racist cop, is an absolutely unbelievable caricature. Shameful writing, truly. A supposed-to-be-humorous scene in which he corrects the justice-seeking mom, “You’re supposed to say ‘torturing people of color‘, not torturing blacks,” had me cringing. And in a total casting fail, I’m sorry but you cannot hire Sandy Martin to play that cop’s white-trash mama; anyone who watches It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia will only see her as Mac’s mom.
But, I was hanging with it. In the lead role, Frances McDormand delivers a powerhouse performance, tough as nails, wounded to the core. An Oscar nominee for certain. Woody Harrelson’s character is as multi-layered as Rockwell’s is one-note. Caleb Landry Jones, as the young head of the ad agency, has a real pleasing way about him. And I enjoyed seeing Ed Danvers from Homicide in a station house and Lester from The Wire back on the force.
Then something very dramatic happens in the plot, and shortly after, I was feeling, “End the movie right here. Fade to black.” But it doesn’t end, and instead falls to shit. Witness: a major character’s personality doing a complete 180 just by reading a letter! Totally disrespectful portrayals of two young women just for laughs, complete with clichéd upspeak! Amazing coincidences where characters end up in the same place at the same time! And the racial issue never really gains traction.
There were at least two more instances where I thought, “OK, end the movie here. Stop the bleeding.” But it keeps on going, feeling much longer than 115 minutes.
There’s a lot of positive buzz about this film, but I’m going to post this review on three billboards outside Hoboken, New Jersey.
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