O/T 3 Billboards film

Brilliant film. Pitch perfect in every way.

 

just watched it from the planner. An exceptional film. Brilliant writing and wonderful acting. Frances McDormand on another level as an actress.

 

The ex husband theory is the one I came up with too.

 

My other theory was that the new police chief was either lying or had been lied to about the other guys alibi. The whole film shows the police as being corrupt, it's possible that the corruption goes further.

Although I did wonder, did the new police chief ever actually show the documentation he was asked for to prove who he was?

 

I'm pretty sure that he was a legitimate police chief. I think the damage had already been done in regards of the investigation (or lack of) before he arrived.

 

I'm an overthinker as you will have noticed many years ago. I had about 50 theories in my head, one of those 50 was that he had been sent to get rid of the one cop who was investigating the case. Dixon may have been incompetent and a thug but he was sat with the case notes on his desk and the first thing the new chief did was sack him and didn't put anyone else on the case.
See, this is why I stick to simple films

 

Dixon was incompetent and a thug (great acting by Sam Rockwell) but until he was sacked he'd done the square root of nothing to investigate properly, aside from maybe hinder it. The only one who had any real empathy with Mildred wasn't taken out of the equation by the police chief (I've kept details to a minimum to avoid spoilers).

 

Thank you all for the responses, going to give it a go today, not read the spoiler posts though

 

You will enjoy it.
I hope it doesn't surprise you too much though when you find out that it was all in the mother's head and that she imagined the whole thing

 

I loved it but I have one big question which contains spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen it

You are watching the film from the wrong angle. This is not and was never intended to be a ‘whodunnit’ film. The film is about a woman’s reaction to grief and her coping mechanism for feeling the burden of guilt about her daughters murder. Because it’s a year since the crime the rest of the town has moved on and can’t understand her frustration about the inaction, and that unbeknown to them she had to live with that last day with her daughter forever. The reality is that the police can never detect the case without DNA and she knows it and takes her anger out on the authorities. It makes her question all the injustices in life(hence the brilliant monologue on child abuse to the priest).

 

This

 

I think you're bang on the money there Gaz. I also think that's why she's prepared to go along with the proposition at the end - it may not be justice for her daughter but it's something she can do to assuage her guilt and frustration.

Your post put me in mind of the famously unanswered question of who killed the chauffeur in The Big Sleep.

"During filming, neither the director nor the cast knew whether the chauffeur Owen Taylor had killed himself or was murdered. A cable was sent to Chandler, who told his friend Jamie Hamilton in a March 21, 1949 letter: "They sent me a wire ... asking me, and dammit I didn't know either".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Sleep_(1946_film)

"This exemplifies a difference between Chandler's style of crime fiction and that of previous authors. To Chandler, plot was less important than atmosphere and characterisation. An ending that answered every question while neatly tying every plot thread mattered less to Chandler than interesting characters with believable behaviour."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Sleep

I feel that a similar set of priorities drove this film. It's probably why I enjoyed it so much - I'm a big fan of style in writing and films and not so worried about neat endings or tight plots.