She, of course, as many beautiful 19-year old women are, is very, very stupid.
(This doesn’t bother the new 19-year old girlfriend either. he’s grieving? Ex-wife will hold his hand a couple of minutes later. Violent spousal abuse can be forgiven if there’s a raped dead daughter involved, then? It’s ok if he slams his ex-wife against a wall and chokes her. I see another white person, and I’m like, “we could totally be best friends or maybe even date! - you’re white, I’m white - it’s perfect!” If the film were at all intelligent about its commentary on race, there might be room for showing how two people of color might find solace in one another’s company in a sea of white supremacists, but this film doesn’t establish any sense at all of a black community or even of a need for black community.) he’s black? I mean, that’s how it works for white people. (Also, she’s a successful, established business owner, but I guess it’s obvious that she’d have an immediate connection with the billboard painter? Because. A black woman getting unjustly thrown into prison for possession of marijuana is no big deal to her, then? Her main goal would be, as soon as she gets out, to help her white friend. Forgiveness can be a powerful storyline, but forgiveness is pretty cheap if it ignores inflicted pain and the need for justice. Incidentally, I guess PTSD isn’t a thing? If someone beats you to a pulp and throws you out a second story window, you’ll have no problem spending days and nights in the same room with that person, waiting on him or her. We are supposed to be quite happy to hang out with the Rockwell at the end of the film.) This film doesn’t seem at all interested in that though.
So when the transformed man makes the transformation, we just forget about the crimes he’s committed? The torturing of a black man? Brutal violence against other men and women of the town? Who needs justice, I suppose, when you get to see a white man transform into a nice guy? (The fact that he was fired only after violence against white people, the fact that he was not prosecuted for any crimes at all, could, in another film, be some kind of commentary on police brutality and systemic injustice at work in this country. So all it takes for a misogynist/racist/extremely violent person to become a totally new man is a letter filled with sentimental advice from a man he’s known just three years? Proffered orange juice can also aid the transformation? (Sidenote re: the chief and his wife: Maybe it’s just me and I’m a bit over-protective, but if there were a rapist and murderer at large in a small town, I probably wouldn’t leave my two daughters, who may or may not be able to swim, beside a river by themselves with a game they are a little too old for in order to go have sex with my partner?) because he has cancer? Also because he has two cute daughters and a super hot Australian wife (who somehow made it to small town Missouri) who is 21 years younger than he is and totally adores him? Police brutality against nameless black men, the rape and murder of mostly unknown girls is what we’re going with for fresh storylines in 2017? White police chief is just going to go ahead and overlook police torture of a black man, and we are supposed to think he’s a good guy. Raped, murdered girl (who remains almost totally personality-less - except for being rage-y and teenager-y) at the center of a story again? Guess we’re going to continue to squeeze every last drop of we can out of that beautiful dead girl storyline. Why the title? Is the town name important? Is it a small town? Large town? Small enough for one character to know about another character’s illness, but too big for hospital staff to know they shouldn’t put the perpetrator of violence in the same room with the victim of his violence? (But also, the hospital is so small-town they don’t have a separate burn unit?) The title/place name is oddly specific for such a nondescript town/place.