Was hoping for better

Rating: 6/10 (7 February 2018)

The IMDB Storyline description mentions this as a 'darkly comic drama". Personally I didn't get the 'darkly comic' part. It is a serious topic. Yes, there were a couple comedic moments, like when McDormand's character meets the billboard twenty-something office manager. Or some of the interplay between Mildred and James (Peter Dinklage). But overall, this was a serious movie regarding a serious topic.
I will say it did keep my interest and from that perspective is a good movie. But it also deviated form reality which is where my disappointment came in. It is one thing to go see an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie where you expect reality to be broken and pushed to the ridiculous (think 'Last Stand'). I expect that from Arnold's movies. But this movie started in a serious note and I expected it to remain believable. For examples, it went off track when the former deputy miraculously recovers in what seemed like a day from his burns. Or the African-American sheriff that comes in and takes over. What did he do and what was the point? And then the fact 'someone' burns down the town's police department headquarters and there appears to be no manhunt to find the culprit.
And this movie also included those subtle intrusions of political/social commentary, which seems like the norm now days (e.g., the black replacement sheriff, the dwarf prejudice, the bad-ass female-mother).
So overall, it was interesting but left me hoping for the better that it could have been.
Oh yea, on another note, then there was the ending.....