Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) is not the easiest person to live with. Far from a Town and Country mom she is acrimoniously divorced and had a rocky relationship with a young daughter who has been murdered by someone still on the loose. Frustrated with local authorities who she sees dragging their feet regarding the investigation she rents three abandoned billboards along a stretch of a secondary road and disses the local authority, a popular chief (Woody Harrelson) with terminal cancer. Town folk are less than pleased with his treatment and matters escalate when a venal Barney Fife like deputy oversteps his authority.

In Billboards writer, director, English import Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Six Shooter) drags his steamer trunk of gratuitous violence and incredulous plot twist to middle America tightening somewhat the bloodletting faucet but the credulity once again stretches beyond the borders of realism which diminishes the film beyond repair.

Francis McDormand's uncompromising Mildred simply carries the film from end to end with a stubborn resolve. You find yourself sympathizing but never really embracing her due to her emotional myopia. A plausible conclusion might make her the villain in the piece, the townsfolk certainly feel that way. Sam Rockwell's goober like Dixon is over the top early but eventually settles well into his transition period but the stretch is too broad the damage for the most part done to make it convincing.

Where Billboards wobbles from the outset is tourist McDonagh's approach to the community. Most of the locals are portrayed as ignorant clichés and as in past films he employs copious violence and bloodletting with minimal injury. Add the fact Mildred commits about a half dozen major felonies before heading off into the sunset with Dixon makes it more than clear McDonagh has not left his preposterous storytelling behind in 3 Billboards that never fully settles as absurdist dark comedy or stark drama.