Seven Psychopaths (2012)

Directed by: Martin McDonagh | 110 minutes | comedy, crime | Actors: Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken, Woody Harrelson, Tom Waits, Abbie Cornish, Olga Kurylenko, Gabourey Sibide, Michael Pitt, Michael Stuhlbarg, Linda Bright Clay, Harry Dean Stanton, Zeljko Ivanek, Amanda Mason Warren

Marty (Colin Farrell) is an Irish screenwriter who works in Hollywood. For his next script, all he has left is one name, “Seven Psychopaths”. Struggling with his writer’s block, he constantly abuses the bottle. Meanwhile, Marty’s best friend Billy (Sam Rockwell) and older Hans (Christopher Walken) kidnap dogs before returning them to their owners and cashing in on the reward. However, everything goes wrong when Billy kidnaps the Shi’Tzu of the cranked-up criminal Charlie (Woody Harrelson). Charlie’s dog Bonny is his everything and he won’t rest until he catches the culprit. Due to a combination of circumstances, Marty becomes involved in Billy’s business and suddenly has enough inspiration to write his script.

‘Seven Psychopaths’ can best be described as a pitch-black crime comedy in the vein of ‘Pulp Fiction’: all good actors who get away with brute force thanks to funny dialogues and all supported by a bizarre scenario. Director Martin McDonagh broke through with his film ‘In Bruges’ in which Colin Farrell also played the lead role. Farrell plays director McDonagh himself, as it were, a man who has no idea what he’s gotten himself into. The role of Marty is quite neutral, while the other actors steal the show with their outspoken characters. Sam Rockwell does what he does best. He plays a completely insane type who still has something sympathetic about him. Christopher Walken has the most emotional role of all. He has a troubled past and his wife is in hospital with cancer. He has already shown in enough films that Walken can handle humor, but it should not be forgotten that the best man is one hell of an actor. In a scene with Rockwell, he once again proves that he is one of the best by simply taking Rockwell’s face and looking at him. The emotion splashes off the screen and this fragment is one of the small highlights. Tom Waits also stars in his role as Zachariah, a psychopath with his rabbit for company. Stick around for some extra Tom Waits scenes during the credits, you’ll be rewarded.

McDonagh pokes fun at himself and Hollywood, but also drops a stitch here and there. When Hans asks Marty why he always writes those crappy roles for women, Marty doesn’t really have an answer. McDonagh asks the question to himself, as it were, but in the meantime does little about it by leaving all female roles very superficial. Despite the irony, McDonagh could have done things differently by giving talents like Gabourey Sibide and Abbie Cornish a role with more depth. But luckily there are more than enough fun moments in ‘Seven Psychopaths’. The flashbacks and fantasies of the characters provide both humor and emotion. These short scenes are, as it were, small movies in the ‘big’ movie. Outliers are the stories about the Quaker (with Harry Dean Stanton) and Billy’s fantasy of how his confrontation with Charlie should end. Also not to be overlooked is the wit of the script. It is never clear whether certain events actually took place and as a viewer you are regularly misled. It keeps you on your toes and ensures that ‘Seven Psychopaths’ never becomes a caricature of themselves. ‘Seven Psychopaths’ regularly goes over the edge in terms of absurdism, but thanks to the humor and the protagonists it is a very entertaining film.