Seven Psychopaths | Review
This is a film about a screenwriter who has troubling working on his latest screenplay for a film called – you guessed it – ‘Seven Psychopaths’. I’m not sure how much of Martin McDonagh’s ‘Seven Psychopaths’ is based on personal experiences, if at all, but whatever the case is it is an amazing success. The surprise here is that the film is not just about outlandish characters goofing around but also about filmmaking. It edges on lunacy, bloody violence, dark comedy, and clever commentary on cinema.
The film stars Colin Farrell as the screenwriter Marty, but the true stars are Sam Rockwell (‘Moon’) and Christopher Walken. Rockwell is Marty’s best friend, Billy Bickle, who is a struggling actor and also part-time dog-napper. Walken portrays Hans, Billy’s partner in crime. The two kidnapp dogs and return them to their owners days later and reap the rewards. It’s a clever scheme until they kidnap the wrong pup – a crazy gangster’s pup, that is. This gangster is Charlie Costello (Woody Harrelson), a threatening man who hates everything and everyone but his precious Shih Tzu. The majority of the film involves Marty, Billy, and Hans hiding from Charlie and his thugs.
As they deal with this crisis, Marty requests Billy’s help with his screenplay. All he’s got is the title and needs Billy to inspire him in creating seven psychopathic characters. This is where the film gets really self-aware, almost meta in aspect. The film switches between real life and imaginary “mini-movie” scenarios of psychopathic characters within Marty’s screenplay. And quite often the line between reality and imaginary is blurred, with one bleeding into the other. This transition between what is actually happening and what is only happening in Marty’s imagination/screenplay could have been cheap, jarring, and cloying but ‘Seven Psychopaths’ is written and edited way too well to feel that way. The imaginary moments provide more shock value and bloody action than the real life sequences, but both are just as entertaining. When the imaginary stories loop back around and more truths are revealed they’re even more effective. The emotional grab of the film’s “real” moments are strengthened by the reveals of these imaginary stories.
Colin Farrell is far better here than he was in ‘Total Recall’, playing the straight man (in comparison to the other characters), although the character is a drunken Irish. Rockwell steals every scene he’s in with his hyper-kinetic energy and comedic delivery. When his character has to repeat things he’s said, it’s a simple on-going gag but it’s a downright hilarious one. And the scene where he basically pitches a third-act shootout bonanza for Marty’s script is one of the film’s best and funniest. Christopher Walken tends to play himself in almost every film he’s in and ‘Seven Psychopaths’ is no exception. Walken’s Hans character is definitely zany and strange as always, however here there’s also an unexpectedly strong and intimate portrayal of the character. The more we learn about Hans the better Walken is; his role in this film is perhaps one of his best to date.
Woody Harrelson (‘Zombieland’, ‘The Hunger Games’, & ‘Rampart’) has always been great at playing weird and/or intimidating characters in often comedic ways and that’s the gist of his character in this film. Musician Tom Waits plays a disturbing man who’s story inspires one of Marty’s characters for his script – he used to be a serial killer of serial killers. Waits’ performance is creepy and spot on. There’s also a mysterious man in Marty’s real life world named The Jack O’Diamonds killer who’s going around killing gang members. Uh oh.
Besides the characters I’ve just mentioned there are even more crazies in the mix. Harry Dean Stanton plays a Quaker bent on revenge, a character of Marty and Billy’s imagination. Also there’s a murderous Buddhist (Long Nguyen), also a creation of Marty and Billy’s, who provides a spectacular conclusion scene in ‘Seven Psychopaths’ – and I’m talking about both the fake film and this real film.
‘Seven Psychopaths’ has no real weak spot except in its female characters, and the film sort of acknowledges this when Hans tells Marty his female characters are stupid. It’s a universal truth that we learn the rules to break the rules, and that’s what Martin McDonagh’s film does. The rule is that better-written, more dimensional characters tend to make for better films. This film knows its female characters are boring and one-dimensional, and it’s purposely so. The film doesn’t really require them to be anything but, and that’s totally fine because the focus is so heavily on the insane leads and supporting cast, who just happen to be males. There is, however, one impactful and memorable female character in the form of Linda Bright Clay, who portrays the breast-cancer battling Myra. More on her character I shouldn’t say.
Martin McDonagh, the director of ‘In Bruges’, wrote this ingenious film himself. The marketing for the film presents it as a straightforward violent comedy about seven outlandish characters. Thank goodness it’s much more than that! The humor is sharp and witty. The shift between reality and imaginary is risky but effective. The bloody violence and cinematic satire would make Quentin Tarantino proud. And the winning aspect of ‘Seven Psychopaths’ is its inclusion of surprising warmth and pathos.
Four out of four Kent's.
Extra Notes:
Mickey Rourke was originally going to play Charlie Costello, but he dropped out after having conflicts with Martin McDonagh. I’m not sure how well Rourke would have played the character since Woody Harrelson did such a bang-up job.
There’s a theory circling around the internet that musician Tom Waits was the inspiration for the late Heath Ledger’s voice for The Joker. Watch the following video right around the 2 minute mark and hear for yourself!
