Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri tries to be too many things, and doesn’t really succeed at any.  At its core, the film may fall into the revenge flick genre, but to its credit (and to its detriment), it doesn’t follow the formula.  Typically we would be presented with a revenge-worthy circumstance, then the protagonist would be presented with hurdles, i.e. solving the unsolved mystery of who deserves her vengeance, and finally there would be a climactic resolution.  Three Billboards alludes to each of these stages of the revenge flick, but never delivers.  In a better film, I could see this working to convey a lesson that revenge is never satisfying, but McDonagh never finds the right tone.  He doesn't follow the formula, but he doesn't present us with a cohesive alternative either.  His characters are not fully realized, and the plot doesn’t ever get traction - there is allusion to a deeper story, but nothing substantive is provided.  I don’t think it’s necessary to show the revenge-worthy crime, but somehow I never really was convinced that it had ever taken place.  While Frances McDormand usually plays persuasive characters, here her motivation seems forced.  Likewise, Woody Harrelson, and Sam Rockwell, while they gave entertaining performances, were not compelling.  I think that Rockwell’s character’s transformation was unique (it would have been unexpected if I hadn’t heard about it beforehand), and was probably the best part of the film.  That being said, Braveheart, The Princess Bride, and Kill Bill Vol. 2 each have dealt with the revenge in ways that are far more interesting than Three Billboards.  I will say that McDonagh surprised me, by going just past the point that I thought would be the perfect ending, and finding one that was just a little bit better.