Movie Review: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri *****

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is your movie to see this holiday season. It's

a beautifully told story of a mother's grief and the lengths she goes to to find justice. Frances McDormand is perfect as crass, cynical, sarcastic, no-bullshit Mildred. The first scene perfectly shows us Mildred's story - in about ten minutes, you know exactly who you're dealing with and why.
She's not lovable, not by a long shot, but you're with her all the way. And no one delivers a glance like McDormand, so little that says so much.
All the characters have their own stories and are more complicated than first glance, and all that is revealed in due time.
You get to see Woody Harrelson's acting chops in this film, more so in this role than in the much more on-screen role of LBJ, also playing now (which I recommend only for the history). He's so authentic in the part of Chief Willoughby that there's a part of me that believes what's happening to the character is happening to him in real life (I won't spoil it).
It's not a perfect film - if it were then someone wouldn't just happen to have a fire extinguisher in the car exactly when needed, and Mildred would know the police chief's wife, since she knows everyone else in town, but you can forgive things like that when a film is so right. Beautifully done.
Five out of five stars for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.