Seven Psychopaths - film review

Seven Psychopaths is a 2012 black comedy which reunites writer and director Martin McDonagh with Irish actor Colin Farrell. They worked together on In Bruges, another dark and witty crime film, which I really enjoyed. The later film is more ambitious, and certainly has entertaining moments, although I found it rather patchy in comparison to In Bruges.

The basic premise is that Farrell is a writer called Martin (naturally this predisposed me in his favour). He is based in California and working on a script called Seven Psychopaths. His pal Billy (Sam Rockwell), who offers to help him with the story, earns a crust by kidnapping dogs and earning rewards for returning them to their owners, Billy's partner, Hans (Christopher Walken) is a religious chap whose wife is suffering from cancer.

Things start to go badly wrong when Billy and Hans kidnap a dog to which a weird gangster played by Woody Harrelson is emotionally attached. In his demented quest to recover the dog, the gangster kills Hans' wife in hospital, and events spiral further out of control. This is a film where people die bloody, comic-book style deaths from the start of the film almost until its end.

The trouble with writing a screenplay about a screenplay is that self-awareness can slip into self-indulgence, and I felt that Seven Psychopaths' gleeful way with violence was sometimes at odds with more serious aspects of the story. The cast is strong, and I can see why the film has won many admirers, but it did leave me with mixed feelings.At times it seems too clever for its own good. Worth watching,yes, but for me, In Bruges is the better film.

In Bruges - film review

In Bruges is a 2008 film written and directed by Martin McDonagh that is hard to categorise. Is it a gangster movie or a black comedy or both? I suppose I'd describe it as a dark fairy tale - much is made of the fairy tale quality of the Belgian city in which it's set, and there's a dream-like quality about the final scenes in particular which account for much of its appeal. It's often funny, if usually in a macabre way, and its looping storyline keeps you interested from start to finish.

Two hit men (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) are sent packing to Bruges at Christmas time by their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes) after Farrell messes up his first big job. He's been paid to shoot a priest but also manages to kill a young boy by mistake. This vein of incompetence in the characters' actions runs throughout the narrative. This is a story about violent men who actually are not very bright. But they are also rounded characters, and Farrell and his mentor Gleeson in particular have some redeeming qualities.

Much of the humour comes from the fact that Farrell can't stand Bruges. The only snag is that Bruges is such a lovely place (the film makes this clear, and I know it's the case from having visited it a couple of times) that some of the jokes seem slightly forced. But this is a minor quibble, and the atmosphere of the city, plus the occasional references to another film about a canal city, the wonderful Don't Look Now, make for a visual feast.

Clemence Poesy plays the drug dealing girl who catches Farrell's eye, and the equally appealing Thekla Reuten makes the most of a small part as the pregnant co-owner of the hotel where the hit men are staying, waiting for instructions from Harry. When the instructions come, a sequence of very unfortunate events is...er....triggered. I really did enjoy this film. It's very well acted, with good background music and great photography. It deserves its high reputation.