Lately, when many people see Awards being dished out to movies they begin to think twice about their worth, in much the same way as when advertisers spend up BIG to tell us their latest product is the BEST on the market - you can often expect a cop-out. With Francis McDormand heading up the cast you might expect the Cohen Bros may have been somewhere in the wings to push it along - in fact, this work offers many of the depressing earmarks of some lesser Cohen productions (maybe that's partly why the Academy selected it?) The overly sensationalistic mix contains all the ingredients that one could cram into a plot filled with a continuous succession of near impossible coincidences (not to mention some perverse PC agenda pushing) With little or no character development and too many stretched situations - we are taken through a series of shocking actions that would land anyone committing just half of them, in jail or would have the local community after the perpetuator's blood! - but no, our 'hero 'Francis violently assaults school kids, dentists, and near anyone she feels like with few saying little more than boo. And for those who attempt to excuse this as "black humour" - the 'humour' is just so 'simplistically' dark as to be virtually invisible.
The local police (an unconvincing bunch of simplistic stereotypes) bash people near to death in broad daylight, and this is all taken as just another day in a town where every inhabitant tends to be on the edge of a mental meltdown. There's almost no-one the viewer can emotionally identify with or support - unless they too, are on the loopy side of Mental Health Denial. Add to the above, a lazy writer determined to create a swear fest - where all the foulest of outright mean language is paraded - in an attempt to out-shock any that's gone before. This is juvenile trendiness in the extreme.
Viewers bright enough to see beyond a manipulative piece of exploitation - may see this rather pretentiously overrated concoction for what it is. While it attracted a lot of people to the ticket box, it's obvious from the Huge amount of viewer feedback - published on IMDb, etc; many of these audiences were bitterly disappointed and would like both their time and money back. And, lets not even get started on the pathetic ending.
The end credits thank the local inhabitants for their co-operation but, I somehow doubt many would welcome them back - given the image painted of them! Lol.
