This film is worth watching for its own brand of young unstable men indulging in their own particularly hilarious and neurotic antics
In 2008, British-Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, came out with his first feature film, In Bruges, a sublimely violent, darkly comic caper of a film that delighted people who have an affinity for clever writing, a nonchalant attitude towards extreme violence on screen, and a love of the absurd.
Admittedly there is more to Donagh’s writing than just the above. His plays were lyrically inspired, extremely bloody pieces brilliantly satirising the plight of the Irish post conflict era. Works like The Lieutenant of Inishmore (2001), were critically acclaimed, chronicling the wanderings of a mentally unstable Irish National Liberation Army officer who has just found out that his cat, who is also his best friend, has been killed.
Seven Psychopaths, though not in the same league as In Bruges, is very much worth watching for its own brand of young unstable men indulging in their own particularly hilarious and neurotic antics. Sharing an animal as a key plot point with The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Seven Psychopaths follows the madcap activities of a duo of dog thieves: Hans Kieslowski, played by the wonderfully deadpan Christopher Walken, and Billie Bickle, played by the always watchable Sam Rockwell. These two are offset by their friend, the struggling screenwriter Marty Faranan, played by the very Irish Colin Farrell in his first decent role in years (his last good one was in In Bruges).
The thieving duo who steal dogs and return them to their owners to claim the reward are caught in a particularly uncomfortable situation when they kidnap a ridiculously adorable, mini panda like Shih Tzu (called Bonny), from a psychopathic gangster named Charlie Costello (Woody Harrelson). Meanwhile, Marty has been writing a screenplay titled Seven Psychopaths and is constantly on the lookout for real life psychos to inspire and alleviate his writer’s block.
The plot is terribly confusing to go into, suffice to say that at one point, Marty, Billie, and Hans find themselves on the run from Costello, who is armed primarily with an oft misfiring pistol and a flare gun. The trio, meanwhile, are armed with very little, travelling in a vintage Buick, Billie carrying Bonny under his arm as their only real defence. Also involved are the seven psychopaths; Billie, Costello, and Hans are all revealed as three of the seven over the course of the film.
It is difficult to justify or even try to come to terms with this brand of film-making. Roger Ebert, the great film critic who passed away this week, often defended films that had good intentions, even if they were fairly mediocre in execution (not that this film suffers from mediocre production values).
Well, the intent behind Seven Psychopaths is opaque indeed. McDonagh, who is both writer and director, has clearly honed his style quite enough to be able to achieve this level of clever silliness without any real effort. While In Bruges portrayed a real kind of existential angst experienced by the hardened gangster, Seven Psychopaths sails past any kind of metaphorical meaningfulness, opting instead for some fairly shallow philosophising about life after death.
This is not, in any way to say that Seven Psychopaths isn’t worth watching. With its fine cast of characters (Tom Waits makes a great cameo as one of the psychopaths), its clever script, general hilarity, and of course, the Shih Tzu, the film will keep you more than entertained, although undoubtedly scratching your head at the end of all the carnage.
Watch it at your own risk, without your children around, and at the end of it all, perhaps you will be left thinking only this, how far would you go to get your dog back?
Seven Psychopath, directed by Martin McDonagh