In ‘Three Billboards,’ a timely portrait of outrage
NEW YORK — In “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” or anywhere else, Frances McDormand means business.
In Martin McDonaugh’s new film, McDormand plays a woman, Mildred Hayes, consumed with rage because the rape and murder of her teenage daughter has gone unsolved after a year. She embarks on a blazing, relentless campaign to hold the town’s sheriff (Woody Harrelson) accountable, erecting billboards that taunt him and unleashing a foul-mouthed fury on the sleepy Southern town.
In a way, it’s impossible to separate Mildred from the equally uncompromising McDormand. Mildred is a matter-of-fact, non-nonsense force because McDormand is one, too. Take, for example, how McDormand imagines Mildred might react to the Harvey Weinstein revelations.
“She would have absolutely no time for it,” said McDormand in a recent interview. “She wouldn’t waste her breath.”