Wanted to watch the movie since I saw the golden globe award, and I finally managed to do so in a flight.
A lady who lost her daughter due to rape and murder posts a message on the three billboards in a small town. The lady’s action triggered two opposite repercussions — anger and empathy, the axis of which is a death of the police chief accused in the billboards’ message. The hatred and love collectively make a harmony in the end, like a classic philosophical dialectic.
In a sense, the plot may be increasingly familiar with many of us living in the era of social media, where a controversial message makes huge positive and negative replies, although they don’t get to a nice conclusion in many cases. The lady’s action is like a radical tweet, and this may be one of the reasons why the movie became popular.
Usually, controversial arguments end in tragedy (at least in SMS in Japan), and the message of the movie to the phenomena may be that love is a way to avoid a bad ending. Sincere love and commitment may prevent us from collective resentment and madness.
