REVIEW: Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri is the first great don’t-miss film of 2018.

REVIEW: Funny, sad, wildly unpredictable and shrewdly insightful, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a movie that defiantly marches to the beat of its own drum.

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI (MA15+)

Rating: four and a half stars (4.5 out of 5)

Director: Martin McDonagh (In Bruges)

Starring: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Abbie Cornish, Peter Dinklage.

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Funny, sad, wildly unpredictable and shrewdly insightful, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a movie that defiantly marches to the beat of its own drum.

Nevertheless, the performances are so emphatically strong — and the writing is so searingly sublime — that you will fall into line with its unusual rhythm without even realising it.

Mildred Hayes (an incredible Frances McDormand, definitely front of the line for the next Best Actress Oscar after this) wears the same uniform every day: a navy-blue jumpsuit, not unlike that you would see sported by a mechanic, or an assembly-line worker in a car factory.

Frances McDormand as Mildred Hayes in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

This outfit isn’t a pre-requisite of Mildred’s employment by a gift shop in the small American country town of Ebbing.

The attire has more to do with the one thing that is on Mildred’s mind before, during and after her working hours.

Seven months ago, Mildred’s daughter Angela was raped and murdered, and her case remains unsolved. In fact, the Ebbing police don’t have as much as a single lead, or a vague outline of a potential suspect.

The tight-knit community around Mildred has already moved on with their lives. Mildred’s austere fashion choice is her way of reminding everyone — herself included — that she won’t be moving on. Not until her child’s killer is brought to justice.

Frances McDormand, left, and Woody Harrelson in a scene from "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri."

However, this is no ordinary tale of revenge, or even redemption. You will gather as much once Mildred arrives at an idea she believes will draw some new heat to Angela’s cold case.

Using all of her savings, Mildred pays for a trio of billboards to appear on a back road leading into Ebbing. The wording of each oversized advertisement is basic to the point of bluntness.

Everyone who sees it can’t help but get the point. Angela Hayes died a horrible, terrifying and pointless death. The police have botched the investigation. The local police chief is to blame.

Mildred actually names Ebbing Police Chief Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) on the last billboard in the sequence. Renowned as a fair and honourable man, he isn’t very thrilled with such a public shaming.

Neither is Bill’s second-in-command, Officer Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell). This guy’s a redneck, a racist, and an all-round jerk.

Frances McDormand and Peter Dinklage in the film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Photo by Merrick Morton.

What follows in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a tragicomic character study in triplicate, as Mildred, Bill and Jason each deal with the prolonged aftermath of Angela’s death in their own uniquely hard-to-fathom way.

No-one in the movie is particularly likeable or blessed with many redeeming features. However, you will have to search long and hard to find a collection of characters more utterly, truly human than these.

Frances McDormand plays Mildred Hayes, a mother determined to find her daughter's murderer, in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.