I remember seeing the ads for this and later seeing this up for nomination for the Academy Awards. Considering that endorsement it caught my interest and I went into this not knowing what to expect. A film that lives on it’s interesting characters and propped up by it’s terrific cast, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a thought provoking piece.

Seven months after her daughter’s murder, Mildred (Frances McDormand) is still looking for justice. In order to put pressure on the local police, she pays for three billboards to publicly shame them. It works…sorta. The move certainly gets attention and Mildred find that she gets little support from her community. The police are certaintly none too pleased.

When the credits rolled, I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not. The story basically just ends and on first impression, I felt ripped off, left in a lurch. There’s no closure and what’s shown in that last scene has a lot of implications. Ending at two hours or so, there was definetly more story to tell.

After thinking on it for a few days I’ve realised that the story of Three Billboards had been told. This movie is very much a slice of life. A mother still in mourning, her family broken apart. Her ex-husband is no help, nothing more than another source of stress. Her son has been devestated and she struggles to keep her relationship with him. Mildred is angry. Knowing that her daughter’s killer is still out there is infuriating. She feels she has to do something or her anguish is going to eat her alive.

I think this movie is a good reflection on life. Everything doesn’t work out. Sometimes the pit you get shoved into doesn’t get filled in and the rescue ladder that gets put down for you isn’t long enough. You have to find a way to claw your way up and the marks you get in doing so don’t completely heal. Life isn’t fair and people are flawed.

Mildred feels like the police have given up, or worse, don’t care about the case. Police Chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) explains to her why the investigation stalled and they are very good reasons. But that’s not good enough for Mildred. Her daughter is gone, the killer is out there, and she’s still furious.

Willoughby also has his own problems he’s dealing with in his own life. Terrible and unfair things happen to everyone. Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell) is his own problem. The guy is a terrible person and has a lot of growing up to do.

Through the course of the movie, Mildred wades through pushback the entire way. Some people stand by her side and she ends up pushing some of them away with her own shortsighted and arrogant behavior. Dixon isn’t the only one who lashes out at whomever is nearest.

I think at it’s strongest moments, Three Billboards tries to show that we’re all messed up people. By upbringing or circumstance, your world view can skew to see things a certain way. When you make up your mind on something, it can be easy to dismiss the facts around you. Anger can make you do stupid and bad things. It might seem like the right (and justified) thing to do at the time, but afterwards you’ve changed who you are and that has consequences. But we’re all people. And people can change, the possibility is there for everyone. That change isn’t immediate though and it takes a lot of work. You have to listen to other people sometimes.

The movie ends on a twisted note. One of darkness that may or may not play out. A road has been chosen but the chance to stop, go a different route, or turn back is there. Your choices make you who you are.