Seven Psychopaths doesn’t sound like a movie with an intelligent script. If I had a guess, I would have said that a movie released in October with that title is meant to cash in on the slasher horror of Halloween. What a pleasant surprise, then, that Director Martin McDonagh combines an intelligent, self-referential script with a slasher story. By mocking the violence Tarantino style, McDonagh crafts a very funny action comedy with very interesting scene-stealing psychopaths.
The focal point of Seven Psychopaths is Marty (Colin Farrell, who worked with McDonagh on In Bruges), a screenwriter who is struggling with his movie of the same title. Helping him write his story is his best friend Billy (Sam Rockwell), a professional dog kidnapper with a partner named Hans (Christopher Walken). Unfortunately, Billy has kidnapped the dog of a professional hitman (Woody Harrelson), causing a killing spree involving a Jack of Diamonds, a Shih-Tzu, Vietnam, rabbits, and breast cancer.
The element of abrupt violence and story-within-a-story gives Seven Psychopaths its edge. The very first scene involves two hitmen getting whacked by another hitman. By creating a character based on a real person that kills serial killers, Marty’s screenplay makes the psychopaths both hunters and the hunted. The meta extra layer keeps Seven Psychopaths off-kilter until the final 30 minutes, when the plot revolves around Marty. That final half hour is Seven Psychopath’s weakest; it tries to provide some meaning and heart to a central character who doesn’t have much of either. That first hour, however, blends Marty’s writing process and real world events to the point where the audience doesn’t know which is driving the movie along.
The off-kilter story’s backbone is gut-busting dialogue. McDonagh’s script is very funny, and contains some really clever one-liners and monologues, including a logical breakdown why Ghandi’s eye-for-an-eye quote doesn’t hold up. Each principal gets more than a few moments, and some get a surprising amount of emotional depth. The one exception is Marty, who has a girlfriend that is supposed to help motivate him, but she doesn’t get enough screen time, leaving Marty to react to the spontaneity and emotion around him (and thus making his character an emotional vacuum).
Of course, McDonagh’s job is really easy because all he needs to do is cast entertaining character actors to not only chew, but digest the scenery around them. Seven Psychopaths is at its strongest when they are the focal point. 4 psychopaths shine the brightest. Sam Rockwell continues to impress in roles where his charisma is at the forefront; it is a shame his pedigree isn’t higher among the public. Christopher Walken takes some normal lines and Walkenizes them (the best involving the word peyote), but he also gets a humanizing subplot involving the motivation for his dog napping. Woody Harrelson does a great job playing the first hitman who melts at the loss of his dog, and Tom Waits gets two scenes that leave the audience with more questions about his character than receiving answers. Colin Farrell is not bad as the relative straight man, and he does a good job letting the crazies around him shine. Michael Stuhlbarg, Michael Pitt, and Harry Dean Stanton (in a wordless role) also add some fun to the proceedings.
Those expecting subtlety from Seven Psychopaths (read: no one) will be disappointed. The movie wears its loose cannons on its sleeve, and it at its strongest when those cannons are repeatedly firing. Colin Farrell and Martin McDonagh upped the ante with Seven Psychopaths. Hopefully, their next feature together increases the psychopath level to 11.