In “3 Billboards: The Panels of Vengeance”, Frances McDormand plays a bereaved mother who calls out to the police by renting advertising posters, to advance the investigation into the murder of her daughter. A moving idea that the director and author Martin McDonagh drew directly from his memory.
3 Billboards : Frances McDormand in search of justice
After Good kisses from Bruges and 7 Psychopaths, Martin McDonagh continues to draw closer to the work of the Coen brothers with 3 Billboards: The panels of vengeance, released in 2018. As the directors of Blood for blood and of No Country for Old Men, the filmmaker films the confrontation between high-profile idiots and much more subtle individuals in rural America.
However, unlike the authors ofInside Llewyn Davis, Martin McDonagh treats each of his characters with overwhelming tenderness, starting with his heroine embodied by the formidable Frances McDormand, muse of the Coen brothers and wife of Joel. After the murder of her daughter, raped and burned, Mildred Hayes thirsts for justice and does not support that the police in Ebbing, Missouri, do not move forward with the investigation. She decides to rent three billboards.
On the first, she recalls the atrocious conditions of her daughter’s death. On the second, she is surprised that no suspect has been arrested. On the third, she directly addresses the head of local authorities, played by Woody Harrelson. Suffering from prostate cancer, he has only a few months to live. Mildred’s act therefore provokes the anger of the inhabitants of the city, starting with that of an ultra violent policeman played by Sam Rockwell.
Joel Coen to the rescue
Drama tinged with black humor specific to its author and director, 3 Billboards deploys formidable dialogues and repeatedly takes an unexpected turn thanks to several narrative breaks. The impossible cure and redemption of the characters of Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell form the heart of the film. The duo also shone at the Oscars and was awarded the statuettes of Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor.
3 Billboards therefore represents an important chapter in the career of Frances McDormand, as well as Fargo, series Olive Kitteridge and the expected Nomadland. The actress has yet almost refused to play Mildred Hayes, considering herself too old to lend her features to this bereaved mother. Her husband nevertheless managed to convince her, as she explained in a talk given at TIFF, as quoted by Indiewire. A relief for Martin McDonagh, who had written this role especially for her.
An old memory of Martin McDonagh
The origin of 3 Billboards goes back twenty years for the director. In the making-of titled Crucify ‘Em, the British filmmaker says:
I was traveling through America by bus and saw something similar to what you see in the movie on the first and second panels. It stuck with me. Then, 10 or 11 years ago, I started to wonder what kind of person would be able to make that kind of statement.
Martin McDonagh then had the idea of a mother, and the birth of this character triggered the writing process for the feature film, which also won the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay and Best Dramatic Film.
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