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Seven Psychopaths has an interesting premise and one that feels like it could be both straight-forward as well as very complex to put together. That’s because writer/director Martin McDonagh has crafted a screenplay about a screenwriter, Marty (Colin Farrell, who also headlines in McDonagh’s In Bruges), who is struggling to work on his latest script, Seven Psychopaths, a film from which he draws from reality to create the characters, starting with the ‘Jack of Diamonds’ killer, a man who’s going round whacking middle-aged mafia gangsters, only.
His other characters include the urban legend about a man in a hat (Harry Dean Stanton) regularly observing a killer (James Hébert) over a long period of time, and a Vietnamese Priest (Long Nguyen) who has unfinished business with a hooker (Christine Marzano), and the fact I’ve listed the actors’ names for some of these tales shows part of the wonder in this script because, as each of these segments are described, they play out onscreen.
Trying to help Marty is his best friend Billy (Sam Rockwell), who’s an over-excited oddball (so, what Rockwell does best). Billy doesn’t have a real job, he just hangs out with Hans (Christopher Walken) and, together, they go about dog-knapping. They kidnap a dog, take it back to their hideout, of sorts, along with all the rest, and when posters go up offering rewards for their return, they reunite them with their owners, for a nice stash of cash.
Also thrown into the mix is Woody Harrelson as Charlie, the angriest cop you’ll ever meet, who doesn’t take kindly to Sharice (Gabourey Sidibe) when she’s let his Shih Tzu, Bonny, go missing.
All the male leads are at the top of their game, here, with Farrell in his usual likeable Oirish charmer role, albeit with less of the charmer, as he insults his girlfriend, Kaya (Abbie Cornish, due to appear in 2014’s RoboCop remake, as the wife of Alex Murphy), along with Rockwell, Walken and Harrelson. As is explained along the way, the female parts are not well-written but for reasons that you’ll understand as the film plays out. And I can’t explain it in any more detail than that because this is a road movie where it’s best to know just the basics as you go into it, and let the wonderful comedy combine with the performances and the directing.
Seven Psychopaths is one of the year’s best films, without a doubt. And I looked at my watch at, what I thought was just over the halfway point, only to find just 50 minutes had passed, and I thought that while it had gone along at a reasonable pace up until that point, it was about to flag… I was wrong. From then on, it got even better.
Oh, and if you’re one of those people who jumps up the minute a film’s credits are about to roll, STAY SEATED! There’s still one more scenes just after they begin.
And once you’ve seen the film, you can follow Bonny The Shitzu on Twitter…
Cert: 
Running time: 110 minutes
Year: 2012
Released: December 5th 2012
Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Super 35)
Viewed at: Odeon Cinema, Trafford Centre
Rating: 9/10
Director: Martin McDonagh
Producers: Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin and Martin McDonagh
Screenplay: Martin McDonagh
Music: Carter Burwell
Cast:
Marty: Colin Farrell
Billy: Sam Rockwell
Hans: Christopher Walken
Kaya: Abbie Cornish
Charlie: Woody Harrelson
Myra: Linda Bright Clay
Angela: Olga Kurylenko
Sharice: Gabourey Sidibe
Dennis: Kevin Corrigan
Paulo: Zeljko Ivanek
Larry: Michael Pitt
Tommy: Michael Stuhlbarg
Man in Hat: Harry Dean Stanton
Killer: James Hébert
Vietnamese Priest: Long Nguyen
The Hooker: Christine Marzano
Zachariah: Tom Waits
Maggie: Amanda Warren
The Butcher: John Bishop
The Hippy: Richard Wharton
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.