Seven Psychopaths is a dark and violent “comedy” that is very reminiscent of classic Coen Brothers movies. While writer/director Martin McDonagh doesn’t quite reach their level of deftness and whit in his script, he has created several entertaining psychopaths for his actors to inhabit.
Woody Harrelson channels just enough Mickey Knox into his portrayal of his unstable Shih Tzu loving mobster to make him my favorite loon in this flock. Colin Farrell adeptly plays the straight man role of the dysfunctional drunk writer around which this story rages. Playing the common man acting as the lens through which the audience can relate is one of the roles that Farrell has the most success in playing. It’s when he is called on to carry too much dramatic weight that wheels tend to fall off his performances. Christopher Walken doesn’t phone it in and brings a dollop of his low key genius to the screen.
The absurdity of the characters goes hand in hand with the appropriately disjointed plot. You can’t expect a story about the misadventures of a couple crazy dog kidnappers, a drunken screen writer and his semi-fictional psychopaths to walk a straight line can you? While the soundtrack and cinematography are nothing to write home about they don’t detract from the film.
Those yearning for a return of a Fargo / Barton Fink era Coen Brothers sensibility wrapped in enough violence and gun play to keep even a psychopath happy, with a side of Shih Tzu, look no further you’ve found your fix.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/seven_psychopaths/
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