Upon leaving the theater, The Wife asked the revelatory question: “How come it wasn’t as good as its parts?”. True, Seven Psychopaths is well-acted by a very deep team of my favorite actors and is embedded with belly laughs, but, as a whole, it’s just not that satisfying.
Colin Farrell plays an alcoholic writer struggling to get past the title of his new screenplay. He expertly plays the straight man against an assortment of raging oddballs. Sam Rockwell is brilliant as the writer’s not-a-good-influence friend who, underneath a shiftless exterior, is profoundly psychopathic. Christopher Walken hits another home run as a dignified eccentric. And Woody Harrelson plays a pedal-to-the-metal raging psycho crime boss as only he can.
The supporting cast includes the immortal Harry Dean Stanton, Abbie Cornish, Gabourey Sidibe (Precious), Michael Pitt (The Dreamers, Boardwalk Empire), Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man), Olga Kuylenko and the always reliable Zeljko Ivanek. The best performances are by Tom Waits (as a bunny-petting retired serial killer) and Linda Bright Clay (as Walken’s tough-as-nails wife).
But the story isn’t tight enough. Writer-director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges) (who doesn’t admire Quentin Tarantino) here only delivers Tarantino Lite. Instead, I recommend McDonagh’s brilliant In Bruges (and The Guard which McDonagh produced). For those who like dark, dark comedy with lots of violence, Seven Psychopaths is entertaining. For everyone else, nothing special.
Love it when I make it in to a blog post ~~~ it is such an honor.
I have to agree with my husband, I know it hardly ever happens, loved the acting but the whole thing didn’t hang together well.
Rent In Bruges — well worth the violence for the laughs and performances.