Written and directed by Martin McDonagh Seven Psychopaths has a pretty hefty cast list; a wandering storyline and has six, not seven psycho’s in it. I only mention it because a third of the way through the film, it is somewhat obliquely mentioned.
The Cast:
| Michael Pitt | … |
Larry
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| Michael Stuhlbarg | … |
Tommy
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| Sam Rockwell | … | ||
| Colin Farrell | … | ||
| Abbie Cornish | … |
Kaya
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| Christopher Walken | … | ||
| Helena Mattsson | … |
Blonde Lady
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| Linda Bright Clay | … |
Myra
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| Harry Dean Stanton | … |
Man in Hat
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| James Landry Hébert | … |
Killer (as James Hébert)
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| Christopher Gehrman | … |
Cellmate
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| Christian Barillas | … |
Catholic Priest
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| Joseph Lyle Taylor | … |
Al
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| Kevin Corrigan | … |
Dennis
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| Woody Harrelson | … |
Like I said the cast list is pretty damned impressive. And while I am not a huge Colin Farrell fan, I did enjoy his performance in this film.
Now, about the plot and the storyline; It is, at best, a little eclectic and esoteric. It follows the everyday interactions between Colin Farrell’s character who writes for a living. Marty’s best friend is Billy (Rockwell) who is a psychopath who kidnaps dogs to sell back to their owners with the aid of Hans (Walken).
Throughout the film there is a red hooded person who is “capping” mid level mafioso thugs and leaving a jack of cards on the bodies to show that they’ve been assassinated by the jack; presumably this “calling card” is sending some type of message.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, Marty is struggling to write his latest screenplay about, seven psychopaths. But Marty doesn’t want this to be a standard blood, guts and gore shoot-em-up, he wants all his psycho’s to be pacifists.
Woody Harrelson plays Charlie another psychopath who is a mafia kingpin and who just happens to be devoted to his shitzu, Bonnie. Of course Billy kidnaps Bonnie and the whole film’s violence level increases.
I can’t really reveal any more or I’ll be seriously spoiling a lot of the film. But I can honestly say that after watching it, I felt ambiguous about it. I couldn’t decide whether I liked it or not.
The film looks good. It amuses in parts and disturbs in others, but in neither instance does the film overwhelm or overly impress. My two favourite characters were Hans and Marty (which says a lot as I don’t really care for Farrell as I said before) but Rockwell as Billy did entertain…a little; which also says something as I adore Rockwell in almost everything I see him in.
I believe that this is one that I may have to watch a couple of times to see if I missed something. Because at the end of the film I was left feeling like I had missed something.
Either that, or, they left something out.
A 3 out of 5 stars just for the cast alone…and for the flare gun.
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