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Seven Psychopaths

A roaring black comedy from the same man behind In Bruges, Martin McDonagh and the same camera stealing jaw of Colin Farrell in the front. Struggling screenwriter Marty talks to his friend Billy about the perils of making a successful script which includes stepping into the mind of the psychopaths of the world. While Marty sets about ideas of Vietnamese priests seeking revenge, Billy who's own profession is kidnapping dogs and picking up a fetching reward for their recovery has a more plausible suggestion to get his pal back on track, well as much on the right track as a script about psychopaths can be. Putting an add in a local paper including Marty's address and subtitled 'Psychopaths wanted' things get complicated, though at the same time the new Shitzu puppy Billy snatched turns out to be the beloved dog of local insane mobster Charlie. Marty, Billy and another lovable rouge in the shape of Hans and his necktie collection find themselves surrounded by psychopaths or are they really the ones who deserve that label? Marty is about to find out that screenwriting psychopaths was never going to be an easy going script.

Taking the lead as possible alcoholic Marty is Colin Farrell and worn down writer of a script with only a few real ideas, Farrell is at the top of his game when he's plunged into these kind of roles which hit with both comedy and genuine interest and emotion like in In Bruges instead of the over the top action flicks, I'm looking painfully at you Total Recall. It's best friend Billy played by Sam Rockwell however who at times really steals the show balancing perfect insanity seamlessly with comedy and pure energy to give a character who makes you love him and actively seek out mental help for, in a good way. Like Rockwell, Christopher Walken takes his position as Hans and suiting his bizarre roles of the past, Walken gives that same intensity and hit at insanity yet at the same time a kindly, gentle and sweet old man, only Walken could portray both exactly at the same time. Woody Harrelson puts the full on crazy at break neck speeds as king pin mobster Charlie who would go to extreme lengths to get his dog back from the psychopaths who stole him, played to perfection like his fellow cast members Harrelson gives the film a mesmerizing antagonist. Just as much as the central crazies of the film, the supporting cast are equally as mad including Tom Waits, Olga Kurylenko, Abbie Cornish, Zeljko Ivanek and Linda Bright Clay all brining their A-game.

It's safe to say if you've seen a trailer for Seven Psychopaths may have had eye brows raising and heads turning and exclaiming 'What on earth is that film even remotely about?', with that I'll now try and convince you why Seven Psychopaths is just as much a worthwhile film as Seven Samurai was all back when. Original. A word thrown about not so often in the halls of Hollywood though it is rather well at home under the banner of FILM4 which offers such delights as this, Submarine, Shaun of the Dead and floods more keep Britain in fine light when it comes to film, Seven Psychopaths sits perfectly with it's previous success'. Colin Farrell leads a cast of top of the range actors who have the real quality to push a film about dog-kidnappers and  Hit-man and wife couples assassinating people to the top of the release rung. A film of this calibre probabaly won't reach the same goliath levels of intake as the likes of The Hobbit and Skyfall, but it honestly deserves as much praise as both blockbuster features. It's Bizarre, strange, beyond reality by a mile and yet grippingly real in other ways and actually being a heart warming tale just-so-happily infested with lovable rouges and the criminally insane who happen to be peculiarly normal. Seven Psychopaths is not a film to be swept under the rug among all the big releases but seen as an equal as it will definitely entertain you just as much if not more.

9  /  10

FIN.




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