THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI....will give you a clue to find peace

With such title, you'll expect a whole story full of marketing or advertising either some product or the referenced town from the title, but no, the movie "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" (2017) is all but that. It uses that long title to set you up in a rural town in middle and rural North America, to tell a story that really happened there and will involve some of the locals in a series of events that started seven months ago when a young girl was raped and murdered. But the local police has done nothing about it, mostly because it's staff is not very reliable to fulfill their responsibilities plus the fact that the case by itself seems to be more complicated than just running some test and doing some research. Reason why a grieving mother that is dealing with the guilt of losing her rebellious daughter after a family fight and refusing to drive her ended with her life, is now decided to make it right and do whatever it takes to find the responsible for  such horrible crime. And since the local police has done nothing the last few months, while driving home she has an interesting idea using the abandoned three billboards outside of town as a friendly but at point note to the local police and the whole town. Kind of a wake up call to the whole country regarding so many crimes and unsolved cases that the police in all their departments and states had left opened leaving the locals without hope and with the devastating truth to live and move on. So this movie has so many layers that we should proceed with that as a start.

With a moving and deep performance from actress Frances McDormand as the mentioned grieving mom, working in a souvenir store and raising her other child, a teenager boy that is dealing with depression and the aftermath of a broken family while struggling with his own issues proper of his age, and after dealing with the separation from her abusive husband that left her to date a teenager girl, not only leaving his family but all of them in broken pieces. This is just another reality of the middle class in rural areas where towns are too small that everyone know each other and people talk and because nothing big happens, life just happens, pushing everyone to try to reach the next exciting thing that approaches just to get away from the routine, reason why alcoholism, violence and addiction are so common as a way to escape their reality and boredom. But is in places like this that real situations happen. Young boys and girls die by accidents from them trying to take some risks, or get marries or knocked up at very young age just because there's no much to do or focus in. What is worse is that some of this reality is encourage by their own parents, that trying to see their children accomplish and do more that what they have done, don't realize what they are pushing them to do or how their influence will reflect in their future actions and decisions, just to see them losing their path by the influence or others and idealistic dreams cause by a rebel soul and hunger for excitement and get away of their normal and average reality.

And when they are grown ups, the just live day by day, like just passing through life as a line to take the next train. Lack of purpose and motivation takes them to boredom and failure. Reason why the police department seems to be full of incompetent police man. They are more intrigue about gossips from the neighbors than actually do something about the situation of their hometown. Cases are filed like encyclopedias for decoration in the room but they will be punctual for happy hour at the local bar, taking advantage of their power to get away with murder, able to beat someone just because and use their lack of anger management to persuade the local to do as they need to, until one is finally standing up for the rest and saying no more.  It is time for them to do their job and respond for the lac of answers at it. Exposing their failure proteting the town is what those billboards mean and will bring chaos to the town, that will see the opportunity to finally point fingers to the police and demand them to do their job but also will cause controversy among the conservationists that like to live peaceful and try to get away from trouble, specially officer Dixon, a police officer that the more he talks the more assures how messed up is the academy that gave him a gun and a batch, but that behind his anger issues nurtured by his mother and his alcoholism, hides a detective soul screaming for an opportunity to prove himself and show off in exchange of validation, but for now he is not happy with his station being exposed as mediocre and incompetent so actions will be taken about it.

But then we also get to know the sheriff of this peculiar place, a man that is trying to do it right but its   caught by his own troubles, specially the fact that he has cancer and will die soon, but in the mean time he is still a dad, so will try to be the best dad and husband possible while trying to be also the best he can do as the sheriff of a town that has not much resources and staff to rely on, but mostly he is part of this community and people care about him, so when he is put in the spot by these billboards, some will look at him as the responsable for let this happen and others will take his side and fight for him, protect his reputation, but might be just the fact that they feel sorry for him. Still, he believes in this woman and thinks her idea is brilliant, sadly he can't do much to help her but to support her cause even that will bring more chaos to his office, but he is just another man, a regular middle age man, that has to deal with real issues like family and a career, both stuck in a town in the middle of nowhere, where no one cares about missing persons and where everybody has a better agenda than help others, and settle by just looking at what is happening out there without doing anything to change it, so are they the ones creating this environment and nurturing the fact that things happen here and have no consequences or are the consequences what are shaping the lives of all this people that is trying to survive by just living through the situation looking forward to move on?

Between all this drama exist the real plot of the story that serves here more as a subplot where a case is still open and lacks of any clues of who's the responsible of such horrible crime. But the real question is, does the mother made this happen by pushing her daughter to go out and be at the wrong place at the wrong time just for trying to be a mother and forge her daughter out of the dark side where she stands? Or was the parents that were too busy solving their own issues, dealing with addictions and emotional problems to really focus in their children and embrace their role as parents before individuals unable to fight to keep their family together? Or maybe was the police department that with their incompetent staff makes of this town an easy target for bad people to come and satisfy their needs to commit ilegal actions, while they use their power as a law force to do whatever they want but protect their town by actually doing the opposite creating fear among the locals, fear to the ones supposed to protect them and fear to your neighbors that won''t do anything to help the situation? Or is it the community that raises new generations entitled by their parents that show no respect or role model figure to them by promoting the wrong things to do in any situation, like overprotection, lack of parenting, an absent sense of culture and education but at the same time a great gift of forgiveness that will let them move on to the next chapter no matter if was right or wrong? The answer we might never know or maybe each one of us will have their own after witnessing this different stories colapse in search of one truth that deserves to come out but for sure this 120 minutes will take you a place you never knew and expose several realities of modern time in some areas of the most watched country in the world. All with a great screenwriting, a story that will shock modern and past generations, a great cast delivering terrific performances under a very detailed and emotional direction that will keep you guessing until the very end, one that will make you want to drive over there and figure it out, are you ready for it?