Frances McDormand is one of those actors who rarely gets the credit they deserve, perhaps because she is so often cast in supporting roles (although she invariably steals the show from the ‘real’ stars). So it feels like a rare treat to see her given what looks to be a meaty leading role in this new one from writer/director Martin McDonagh.
In the rather clunkily titled Three Bridges Outside Ebbing, Missouri she plays a grieving mother who hand-paints three signs leading into her home town, each with a provocative message aimed squarely at Woody Harrelson’s police chief, who she blames for failing to catch her daughter’s killer several months after the fact.
Her prickly, uncompromising manner quickly exacerbates matters, with the local law enforcement seemingly powerless to curtail her feather-ruffling efforts. It’s a role that seems tailor made for McDormand, who in this trailer alone drops a staggering number of expletives and withering insults, and to hilarious effect each time.
With In Bruges and his last feature, 2012’s Seven Psychopaths, McDonagh built a reputation as one of the sharpest writers of dialogue around. His latest boasts an impressive cast list – including Sam Rockwell, Peter Dinklage, John Hawkes and Lucas Hedges – which suggests to us that the script must be a cracker. We’ll know for sure when it hits cinemas later this year.
Published 23 Mar 2017
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