MovieChat Forums > Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) Discussion > Not clutching my pearls but...

Not clutching my pearls but...

posted 6 years ago by angelosdaughter (158)
5 replies | jump to latest

I have never seen a movie that contained so much filthy language.

I have seen this movie advertised as a comedy, but I don't think there was a single moment that made me laugh. I found it by turns touching and horrifying,

I empathized with Ms. Hayes, and even understood how she felt to an extent, but her anger and vengeance were so extreme that she had no empathy for the dying Willoughby, even though he did his best to explain why there had been no progress made on finding her daughter's killer and expressed his compassion for her. She didn't even think of the effect on her son of her actions. It does seem that her demands for vengeance for her daughter are in part motivated by her own guilt over her last interactions with her daughter Angela, in which echoing Angela's words she says she hopes she is raped, and that is what happened.
In the previews the clips used were amusing but not when seen in context.

I guess all of the actions taken by Dixon and Ms. Hayes were meant to be funny as they were so outrageous, but I did not see them that way.

It was a good movie and the lead actors were convincing in their roles. Frances McDormand was believable as the exhausted grieving mother making a sort of memorial to her daughter near the billboards. Her scene with the deer that wandered into the scene was touching. Sam Rockwell allowing a possible rapist to beat the daylights out of him to get the rapist's DNA hoping that it might lead to Angela's killer is another poignant moment and a complete turnaround for his character. Peter Dinklage as the barkeep who bravely ran out to rescue Dixon on fire and in spite of having seen what happened, provided an alibi for Ms. Hayes, asking only that she allow him to take her to dinner was convincing in his comportment as a man who did the decent thing and was sympathetic to M. Hayes until her coldness alienated even him.

[–] [email protected] (1354) 6 years ago

This movie should not have had any comedic attempts at all. Instead,, they shouldve kept serious, on a very serious topic, and not had so many characters in it that didnt need to be there. See her in Olive Kitteredge.. You wont be disappointed.

[–] angelosdaughter (158) 6 years ago

Thanks, I will.
I first saw Frances McDormand in 'Fargo" as the pregnant sheriff. She was great in that film, never a sign of discomfort, as many pregnant women show while doing a stressful job, professional yet empathic, and in the scenes with her husband, such a positive, supportive, sweet-natured character. Ms. McDormand is a great actress.

[–] [email protected] (1354) 6 years ago

I will check out Fargo..thanks!

[–] Bolchevik (377) 6 years ago

That movie was clearly not a comedy but a drama. I only saw it was a so-called comedy at the end of the movie and I thought there was a mistake in the description.

@angelosdaughter : i really like your analysis concerning the last interaction with the mother and the daughter before the daughter gets killed and the mother starts acting weird.

That was a good movie (subject, actors, directing) but the too obvious PC unfortunately made it look (at least to me) like Hollywood's propaganda.

[–] KutWrite (1302) 6 years ago

For me, yes you guys above ^^^ do get it.

There were some funny-poignant moments, such as Chief W's little jokes in his letters. But no, not a comedy.

If you liked Frances in this flick, go see her in the early, sexier, or at least sultry days when she did "Blood Simple." The movie will make you twitch and squirm, but is certainly worth seeing. M. Emmett Walsh is at his sweaty, smirking, slimy best in that.

See Walsh also with an early Dustin Hoffman and as-always-great Harry Dean Stanton in "Straight Time." It's also the debut of Teresa Russell and small but scene-stealing roles by Gary Busey (and his little boy) and Kathy Bates.