Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouriis a screenwriter’s film, withMartin McDonaghcrafting a narrative that relies little on action to keep the audience engaged and instead uses our investment in the characters' emotional journeys. While the film is chock-full of terrific performances, led byFrances McDormandin an Oscar-winning performance, it has got to beSam Rockwellwho is the standout.Everything you love about Rockwell,Three Billboardselevates to its highest effectiveness, earning him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
In this role, we seeRockwell’s skill as a character actor, embodying an extreme rangeof personas and character traits. Rockwell’s ability to be both repulsive and charming, shifting between the two at will, guides us through an impressive character arc as we go from detesting the cop to putting our faith in him. Jason is a rather extreme character, but Rockwell ensures that we see a genuine man behind the obnoxious — and at times, repulsive — persona.
Sam Rockwell Uses His Charisma and Sleaze to Great Effect in ‘Three Billboards’
Sam Rockwell’s ability to impersonate people who are likeable, as well as people who are repelling, is what he combines inThree Billboardsto give us Jason. When he asks the workers who ordered the billboards that blame Chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) for the lack of justice around Mildred’s (Frances McDormand) daughter’s death, the wide-eyed, jaw-slackening expression is similar to the confusion we see in his comedic portrayal of George Bush inVice. When he then tries to play the big man and intimidate people in their small town, the quiet menace, lacking any real bite, is reminiscent of the insecure weapons manufacturer, Justin Hammer, inIron Man 2.Hammer and Bush are almost complete opposites in these two films, yet Rockwell synthesizes traits of each to create Jason.
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Darkly delicious.
On the other hand, in the historical satireJojo Rabbit,Rockwell brings empathy and consideration to a character you’d never expect from them.Despite being a literal Nazi officer, Captain Klenzendorf, Rockwell plays the role with kindness, encouraging Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) and looking after him. Klenzendorf is Jojo’s only guardian figure after his mother has been executed, and Klenzendorf is shot after saving Jojo. With his dying breath, he quietly reassures the young boy that it is all going to be okay. This highlights the seriousness of the situation but offers some hope and guidance to the terrified Jojo.
Rockwell brings this quiet strength toThree Billboardsafter his character is almost burned alive when Mildred firebombs the police station. After this moment, Rockwell’s lines are delivered with less arrogance and in a more Stoic tone. When Mildred tells Jason she burned down the station,he sarcastically replies, “Well, who the hell else would it have been?” which is the opposite of his character’s original loudmouth, yet also blunt enough that we know this is still the same speaks-what-he-thinks Jason.
Sam Rockwell Uses His Comedic Movements to Ground Us in Jason’s Extremities
It would be so easy for Jason to come across as irredeemable. However, Sam Rockwell uses his next best gift to prevent this: his physical performance. In bothIron Man 2andTheGreen Mile,the way Rockwell moves tells us so much. In the former, he has a strut that oozes overconfidence, and in the latter, his frantic ducking and dodging Paul’s (Tom Hanks) gun while strangling a guard hints at the deeper layers in these characters. Hammer is overcompensating, and Wharton enjoys making people suffer more than anything. InThree Billboards, Rockwell uses similar physical performance traits to display Jason’s arrogance, rage, and sympathetic side.
The sway of his hips with his back arched, along with the dimmed eyes and lazy smile as he walks away from beating up Red following Willoughby’s death, all paint the picture of someone who wants to project confidence and dominance yet looks stupid the entire time, as his wide shoulders and stumbling legs look unbalanced. When he is fired by Chief Abercrombie (Clarke Peters), he doesn’t even know where his badge is to hand it in, awkwardly fumbling for it with his legs squeezed together, which gives Jason, who at this point we despise, a child-like innocence.Because of Rockwell’s smart choices of when to make us laugh, we don’t hate Jason so much that his arc isn’t effective.
This innocence pays off just moments later in that scene when he goes up to his colleague and isn’t sure if he has been fired or suspended. He does this like a child who has just been told off at school, chuckling and looking around for some assurance from others. Rockwell’s ability to play Jason’s inability to read the room makes you almost feel sorry for him. Without it, we wouldn’t believe it possible that he could become the person who risks their life attaining DNA from who he suspects could be Angela Hayes' (Kathryn Newton) murderer when he scratches the bar patron who was bragging about some poor woman he killed. Yes, we would have Chief Willoughby’s words that support Jason being a decent man at heart, but we only believe them because of Rockwell’s performance. Even at his worst, such as intimidating or beating Red,there is a consistent undercurrent of insecurity and vulnerabilitythat means that, though we hate him, we can see he could be better.
There are very few, perhaps no other, actors who can do what Sam Rockwell can do. He can portray literally anyone, from a cocky billionaire to a violent prisoner, to a man who hassexual fantasies about being an Asian girlonThe White Lotus. InThree Billboards, he brings aspects from almost all of his past performances into his role as Jason, and through a spectrum of emotions and body language, Rockwellshows his ability to play a range of characters within one role.He is slimy, kind, arrogant, selfless, ignorant, and funny, all wrapped up in one of the best performances you’ll ever see.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter’s murder when they fail to catch the culprit.
