We then follow him as he goes back to his old life and tries to make amends and save his brother, who’s gone down a similar path. By the time Vinyard leaves prisons, he’s no longer the guy he was. Over a period of time, we watch Vinyard become friends with Lamont, a black inmate. While in prison, he’s raped by other neo-Nazis. Vinyard is a grade-A racist, neo-Nazi who eventually goes to jail for murdering a black man. He wants to be a detective and do good things! Look, he was burned then beat up, now doesn’t that mean we can like him now?”Ĭompare Dixon’s portrayal to Danny Vinyard of American History X. His mom is a racist, so he just doesn’t know better.
#Three billboards outside missouri movie
And it seemed the movie was, at times, trying to posit Dixon as the victim. I found it problematic that I was being asked to sympathize with Jason Dixon. In fact, the very not-solving of the murder is perhaps the key to its ending.Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri left me in a weird spot. There are many things important to its plot and what it is as a film, and the identity of the murderer is not one of them. It’s not a murder mystery, or a whodunit. Beyond that, that’s just not the point of Three Billboards. If the film intended for the audience to draw that conclusion, the film would put clues in to that effect, and it does not. For one thing, the film doesn’t introduce one iota of evidence that any of these characters is guilty of the murder. People are going to make assumptions that certain characters in the film - Lucas Hedges’ depressed brother? Peter Dinklage’s flirtatious barfly? The drinking buddy of Dixon’s suspect? - was in fact the murderer.īut to try and "solve" Three Billboards is to completely misunderstand what this movie is, or what it’s ultimately about. But it turns out he was wrong, and the film ends without any resolution as to who killed Angela Hayes.Īs more and more people see Three Billboards there are likely to be fan theories about the film, its ending, and the lingering question of who actually killed Mildred’s daughter. Near the film’s end, Dixon, despite having been fired from the police department, appears to redeem himself by solving the murder while getting himself bloodied in the process. After seven months pass with no progress on the police investigation, Mildred rents the titular three billboards outside town and uses them to very publicly ask why Sheriff Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) hasn’t managed to make any arrests in the murder of her daughter.īecause Willoughby is a popular local figure (and a man who is known to be dying of cancer) the billboards turn much of the town against Mildred - most notably the drunk, racist, violent police officer Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell.) We later learn that, dysfunction in the police department notwithstanding, Willoughby most likely did all he possibly could to try to solve the crime, and he emerges as something of a poignant and tragic figure. In Three Billboards, set in a small town in rural Missouri, Mildred Hayes (McDormand) is the mother of a daughter, Angela, who has been raped and murdered. It has plentiful empathy for its characters, and sympathy among them is likely to shift, in the audience's eyes, throughout the film. For a film about such heavy subjects, it’s surprisingly, and even poignantly funny, while handling all of its tonal shifts impeccably. The film deals with many sensitive topics - crime, sexual assault, cancer, suicide, racism, police brutality - without really getting preachy or even necessarily political about them. Related: Three Billboards Trailer #2: Frances McDormand Wants Justice The movie’s strong performances go uncommonly deep, with McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Lucas Hedges, and John Hawkes all delivering some of their best-ever on-screen turns. Three Billboards - currently at 95% fresh on the Tomatometer - has garnered widespread praise for several reasons. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, from writer/director Martin McDonagh ( In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths) drew widespread praise at the Venice, Toronto and Philadelphia Film Festivals this fall, ahead of its limited release on November 10th, and wider release on November 17th. One of this year’s biggest awards contenders is a small, quiet film about a mother (Frances McDormand) seeking justice following the rape and murder of her daughter. Warning: SPOILERS ahead for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
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