Review of Seven Psychopaths (2012) by Erik R — 12 Jan 2014

Seven psychopaths is a film about, surprise, seven psychopaths. What's not stated, and what's considerably more interesting, is that it's really a film about screen-writer Marty (Colin Farrell) struggling to complete - or even start - a screenplay called seven psychopaths. As such, this film has this strange genre-bending, meta-twisting, fourth-wall leapfrogging aspect to it:

The seven psychopaths are sometimes in Marty's imagination/screenplay, sometimes in the film we're watching, and sometimes they're in his both his film AND our film. It's this deft weaving, twisting, dancing of stories that gives the film a kinetic quality to it that never left me feeling stale, as I am wont to feel, on account of the extreme jaded quality to my character.

Every actor plays his role pitch-perfect. Colin Farrell, with his pointy eyebrows, has a permanently quizzical cast to his face that perfectly matches the expression you'd find on a mostly normal guy who finds out his friends are a little crazier than expected. Though it's not a theme explicitly explored, I did find the thought interesting: what would I do, if I discovered my friends were psychopaths? Does that make them any less of a friend?

Christopher Walken as Hans, whose own backstory is as weird and great as the rest of the film, imbues an incredibly calm and peaceful character with a melancholic depth, so delightful because its both so similar, yet so different from the actor who's mastered the frightfully-cheering mien. Tom Waits as Zachariah, who carries around a bunny rabbit, with his gravelly voice tells a story both scary and heart-warming. And of course Sam Rockwell as Marty's best friend Billy, impetus of the entire movie, is full of manic energy and a sort of wild, careening, explosive imagination, a roller coaster that's been derailed but the riders don't even care.

The film's impressive: the way it partakes in genre staples, yet also mocks these conventions; the way it blends flashback, dream sequence, and real-time events; how it manages to be thoughtful, to create depth, without ever being pretentious; the way it manages to, at the very end, blend the twin opposites of peace and violence, a theme it hints at and which I never believed it could pull off.

Final Say: I was impressed with Seven Psychopaths. Very impressed. It's only a hair's width from four stars and possibly that's only because I was dressed in my uncomfortable work clothes when I watched it. It's a film of a type that only a few masterful screenwriters & directors can pull off, and that makes it worthy of seeing.

How to Watch It: Not for or with the squeamish, whether violence or language, as it has plenty of both. Ideally with someone who has seen writer/director Martin McDonagh's In Bruges and liked it.

EXTRA: To be diagnosed as a psychopath, a person generally needs to have the 4 facets of a psychopath: interpersonal [manipulative, superficial charm], affective [lack of fear, lack of empathy], lifestyle [prone to boredom, impulsive, irresponsible], and antisocial [criminal versatility, history of poor behavior].