The ending was ... odd ... -- jp1692
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So when Dixon’s violence is turned toward ends that match Mildred’s, it read as a redemption arc for some. Dixon overhears a man bragging about sexual assault and, convinced that he’s Mildred’s daughter’s rapist, leaps into action. It turns out the man isn’t the rapist, but Mildred and Dixon, reasoning that he clearly raped somebody, set out somewhat ruefully to kill him anyhow. (It isn’t clear, from the end of the movie, whether they follow through on that plan.) [bold added]
And that’s where the film leaves us. That didn’t sit well with some critics, who saw it as a parry on the film’s part to redeem Dixon without asking him to do anything but the most basic work toward that redemption.
https://www.vox.com/2018/1/19/16878018/three-billboards-controversy-racist-sam-rockwell-redemption-flannery-oconnor