Hans: An
eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind, I believe that wholeheartedly.
Billy:
No it doesn't. There'll be one guy left with one eye. Hows the last blind guy
gonna take out the eye of the last guy left, who's still got one eye! All that
guy has to do is run away and hide behind a bush. Gandhi was wrong, it's just
that nobody's got the balls to come right out and say it.
 |
Director: Martin McDonagh
(2012) |
Following up In Bruges, his excellent crime comedy from
2008, Martin McDonagh is back with his second feature, the gloriously funny
Seven Psychopaths. The film follows Marty (Colin Farrell), a struggling
screenwriter who just can’t seem to finish his latest movie, also known as
Seven Psychopaths. His girlfriend (Abbie Cornish) is fed up with his lazy,
borderline alcoholic lifestyle while his best friend Billy Bickle (Sam
Rockwell) only acts as a distraction to his job. After Billy and his partner
Hans (Christopher Walken) kidnap the dog of a big shot gangster (Woody
Harrelson), Marty is embroiled in the situation, an experience he draws from in
order to finish his writing.
While Seven Psychopaths can be accurately described as a
similar kind of film to McDonagh’s previous effort, it distinguishes itself
possessing a wry, postmodern edge. The women in the film either die or nag
perpetually, something that Hans picks up on in Marty’s script. “What can I
say, Women have it hard” Marty retorts, the films shameful borderline misogyny
transformed into something witty and cerebral. Later on in a confrontation with
Harrelson’s fearless gangster, his gun jams to Billy’s amazement. “In the final
standoff!?!” he roars exasperatedly, shocked at how unconventional the film is.
It’s by no means the smartest film to poke fun at itself, but it’s definitely
one of the funnier ones.
Sam Rockwell demonstrates his acting talent once again as
Marty’s borderline insane best friend Billy Bickle. Rockwell has done unhinged
before on a more serious scale in Moon (2009), but here McDonagh gives him free
reign to have fun with it. He’s utterly devoted to Marty and his writing,
offering him ideas for characters (a psychopath that target mid to high ranking
members of the mafia) as well as a friend to confide in. The films highlight,
where Rockwell writes an ending to Marty’s script consisting of a shootout in a
graveyard is hilarious, McDonagh’s smart writing, vivid imagery and the pitch
perfect delivery of lines makes for an exquisitely funny action scene.
Elsewhere Farrell brings some much needed consistency to the feature to keep
events grounded and Walken’s cool as a cucumber Hans brings a veterans intelligence
to the trio. Alone they are as, but together they make a trifecta of talent
that perpetually keeps the films head above water.
When McDonagh is on form, Seven Psychopaths feels very reminiscent
of Tarantino, a perfect concoction of violence and a sharp screenplay. This is
none more apparent than the opening of 2 gangsters waiting for a target on a
bridge, talking about eyes and killing women. The exchange between the 2 is
almost flawless, tremendously paced and brimming with engrossing humour. When
he connects, he knocks it out of the park, but is all too often prone to
missing wildly. It’s here where the Tarantino allusions seem so very hollow,
the script feeling more like a lazy rip off than something that can stand side
by side with the master. It’s in these sloppy moments that Seven Psychopaths
feels like a tired late 90’s film that wears its influence to other, better
films becomes overbearing; McDonagh is looking up at the greats instead of
standing beside them.
For all the humour involving hookers who speak Vietnamese
and an emphasis on postmodernism, the movie is remarkably violent. While the
bloodshed does augment the films comedy, the amount of headshots, acid burns
and lacerations to the throat is almost overbearing. Violence is something that
should be embraced in any form of media, its impact on a film can mould it into
a truly remarkable piece of work (see The Departed and Reservoir Dogs) but it
becomes such a cornerstone of the film that the next flow of claret loses a
considerable quantity of impact.
While the dialogue is exciting and the editing is tight, the
quality of the film takes a nosedive during the second act that’s borderline
catastrophic. Hans, Marty and Billy leave the city and take refuge in the
desert that results in the plot losing its powerful charge that has made the
film such a joy up until this point. McDonagh recovers admirably with the afore
mentioned graveyard scene, but this doesn’t make up for the films complete dissipation
of energy. It’s a step back from his previous film (In Bruges), but that
doesn’t stop Seven Psychopaths from being a charming, entertaining, thoroughly
underrated film. A cult following is almost definite.
