SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS Review

Directed By: Martin McDonagh

Written By: Martin McDonagh

Rated R for strong violence, bloody images, pervasive language, sexuality/nudity and some drug use

Release Date: October 12^th, 2012

Review by: Sean Kayden

“Seven Psychopaths” is the second feature film from writer/director Martin McDonagh (“In Bruges”). The crime/comedy film has its moments and it’s humorous in bits and pieces, but after a strong opening half, it tends to lose its way a bit in the second half. When watching a movie like this, you really need to suspend your disbelief as well be cool with such implausible events. McDonagh definitely tries to stray away from clichés and conventional setups, but sometimes those things work for a reason. While he may seem a bit more daring with his sophomore film, the entire storyline feels flimsy and too loosely strung together. Sure, the performances are a joy to watch and there is originality and creativity to commend, but if you’re looking for substance and plausibility, you won’t find all that much here.

The movie stars Colin Ferrell as Marty, a struggling screenwriter trying to finish (mostly start) his latest project called “Seven Psychopaths.” The always reliable and stand out performer of the bunch, Sam Rockwell, portrays Billy Bickle, Marty’s best friend. Billy, sporadic, optimistic, and downright goofy is an unemployed actor, who moonlights as a part-time dog thief. His partner-in-crime is Hans (Christopher Walken), a 60-something year-old religious man with a dark and vicious past. Billy wants to help Marty with his screenplay, but Marty isn’t too keen on the idea. Hans, in the meantime, visits his wife at a cancer ward. Billy ends up kidnapping a Shih Tzu. However, we soon find out this isn’t any old Shih Tzu, but one belonging to Charlie, a gangster with issues played by Woody Harrelson. Charlie’s henchmen find out about Hans being in the dog kidnapping business. They seek him out one day as he is returning another dog to his rightful owner (for the reward). When they take him back to the warehouse where Hans and Billy keep the dogs, the Shih Tzu isn’t there, but Marty is after getting kicked out of the house by his girlfriend (a completely wasted role for actress Abbie Cornish) for calling her a “bitch” in front of all her friends at her own house party the night before. Marty knows the dog they’re looking for is at Billy’s house, but Hans, who is just meeting Marty for the time, tells him not to say a damn word. Marty, a self-proclaimed pacifist doesn’t like violence and is about to spill the beans before a mysterious man, with a mask covering his face walks in and kills the two bad guys. The man leaves behind two jack of diamond playing cards. This character is shown in the first scene of the movie, killing two unrelated bad guys in an undisclosed area. All we know about him is that he was in the newspaper and Billy told Marty to use this character for one of his “seven psychopaths.” After the mysterious man does his thing, Hans and Marty meet up at Billy’s house, where they figure out their next move. Obviously, we’ll reach a final showdown with the three men and the gangster. There are a few things that take place between then, something involving Hans’ wife, a “self-described psychopath”(Tom Waits) wanting to share his story with Billy (who posts an ad in the LA Weekly calling for all psychopaths to share their stories that may be included in a screenplay) and a Vietnamese priest seeking vengeance. With all these whimsical things going on, the fun level is kept high, but it overstays its welcome. The main storyline, with the kidnapped dog, suffers as the film heads into the third act.
     Don’t get me wrong, the cast is wonderful, especially Rockwell, who seems to continuously steal the show in every movie he appears in. However, there really isn’t much backstory to the characters (except for Hans). We have no idea how Marty and Billy became best friends or how Billy and Hans ever got together in the dog kidnapping business. I feel the movie was more concerned with quirky moments, fun one-liners, and non-conventional resolutions rather than a having solid, thought out plot. It goes without mentioning that the three female characters were utterly wasted and contributed truly nothing for the film. It wasn’t any of the actresses’ faults, but they just had barely any noteworthy material to work with. When the dust settles, “Seven Psychopaths” ends up being a decent time at the theater. There’s not a lot of replay value and it’ll probably have more of a cult following than a massive reception. Honest opinion, just wait for Netflix or the Blu-ray to catch this one at home.

Grade: 3 out of 5

Published by Mountain Views News on October 20th, 2012
http://mtnviewsnews.com/v06/htm/n42/p12.htm