But Mildred remains immovable, even as the town shows its support for the well-liked, family-man police chief. When that fails to sway her, he reveals he has late-stage cancer. Willoughby tries to reason with Mildred by sharing his frustration about the absence of leads in the case. “Looks like we got a war on our hands,” mutters Willoughby ( Harrelson in a role that fits him like a glove) to his horse, after Mildred, dressed for battle in a bandana and coveralls, appears on local TV news to restate her beef with the police. The billboards are on a road barely used since the freeway was put in, but police officer Dixon - a violent, racist doofus for the ages in Rockwell’s wildly undignified performance - happens to drive by them on Easter Sunday, while the glue is still wet. Following a rudimentary check of the legal restrictions on billboard advertising, she has three signs put up, their blunt messages in boldface uppercase on a blood-red background reading, in order: Raped While Dying And Still No Arrests How Come, Chief Willoughby? It’s been months since Mildred heard a word from cops about the investigation of her teenage daughter’s horrific rape and murder by incineration, so she takes radical steps to light a flame under the ass of local law enforcement. Fox Searchlight has a real ripper on its hands with this one, even if it likely won’t be for mainstream tastes. A stupendous showcase for the formidable gifts of McDormand that also provides plum roles for Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell, this is a corrosively humorous drama of festering injustice, Shakespearean rage, grave reckoning and imperfect redemption, which unfolds with the epic dimensions of a classic Western showdown. After the entertainingly larkish but low-caloric carnage of Seven Psychopaths, McDonagh returns here to the peak form of his debut feature In Bruges, and of his best work for the stage.
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