In the new movie, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and everywhere else, Frances McDormand means business. McDormand plays Mildred Hayes, a woman filled with anger over the unsolved rape and murder of her daughter. She begins a noisy, public campaign to hold the town's sheriff responsible for not finding the killer. Mildred puts up billboards near the sleepy Missouri town where they live. The signs’ messages insult the sheriff and demand action. In some ways, it is hard to separate the character of Mildred from the equally uncompromising McDormand. In the film, Mildred is a strong and determined force because McDormand is one, too. Mildred seems like the heroine we need in real life.