A potentially brilliant film marred by an absurd plot point late in film (spoiler alert!)

Rating: 7/10 (29 December 2018)

A film with superb acting, a wonderful mis-en-scene and a mostly well-written screenplay, loses it's authenticity, regarding law enforcement's reaction to when Mildred Hayes (McDormand) fire bomba their police station, Only in a cartoon-world would this heinous crime not trigger a massive federal investigation. Yet Abercrombie's (Clarke Peters) investigation quickly ends when the self-professed alcoholic used car salesman vouches for Hayes
To further send this once realist piece of art into "toon town" Abercrombie and the rest of the Ebbing PD just move back into their burned-out station, almost as iif nothing had even happened. And how did that raging inferno not spread to the adjacent buildings?
Mildred Hayes should have been arrested almost immediately, then go on to serve a lengthy prison sentence, probably for life. Yet, a week later she's on a date with her alibi, who screams that she committed arson in a packed restaurant and still no further investigation? Perhaps McDonagh (writer) was attempting to demonstrate the total incompetence of the local PD, yet instead he developed a plot line with the gravitas of a Flintsones' episode.
Still a 7-star film, well worth watching multiple times to fully-appreciate the depth of the acting.