Review: Seven Psychopaths ★★★

Seven Psychopaths is the latest from Irish writer Martin McDonagh (Six Shooter, In Bruges) and unfortunately, it doesn’t quite hit the high satirical standards that he has set for himself in his previous offerings.

Colin Farrell plays Marty, a screenwriter bereft of any ideas bar the title for his newest film: “Seven Psychopaths”. His friend Billy (Sam Rockwell, Moon) attempts to inspire Marty by posting an ad in the paper calling for psychopaths to come forth and share their eccentricity with Marty. Billy, meanwhile, has a job on the side with Hans (Christopher Walken, Wedding Crashers) where the duo kidnap dogs and return them for the monetary reward. The main plot point comes when Hans and Billy kidnap a Shih-Tzu dog belonging to a trigger happy gangster called Charlie (Woody Harrelson, Zombieland), who then proceeds to hunt down his beloved dog’s kidnappers.

The main problem with Seven Psychopaths is McDonagh’s self-referencing throughout the movie makes it feel self-indulgent. This theme of satirical self-referencing will only get you off the hook to a certain point before the audience start to question why the writer didn’t fix the problem if he could see it as enough of a problem to joke about it. The best example of this comes when Hans reads Marty’s script and comments, “Your women characters are lousy.” This is meant to be a tongue-in-cheek poke at McDonagh’s male dominated film, where the female characters are weak and ineffectual. I found myself wondering why it hadn't been corrected if it was so evident to McDonagh. 

That said, the film does offer some exceptional one-liners from Walken, who is superb, and the comic pairing of Rockwell and Farrell is inspired. I found myself laughing out loud on quite a few occasions and it begins with such promise and potential for another subtly dark comedy from the talented Irishman. However, the film untangles into chaos in the final third and these glimmers of McDonagh’s ingenuity as a comedic writer were lost within a menagerie of smug, self-referential apology.