With an all-star cast and a quirky trailer, Seven Psychopaths appears to have it all. However, the film is more weird (or quirky, as some call it) than it lets on, and the plot is a bit convoluted as well.
Marty (Colin Farrell) is writing a screenplay called Seven Psychopaths but is out of ideas. His friend Billy (Sam Rockwell) tries to help by placing an ad in the paper asking all psychopaths to call Marty, with the possibility that their stories will be used in his movie. Meanwhile, Billy is making his money by helping Hans (Christopher Walken) with his "dognapping" business: they kidnap dogs and then, when they see reward posters for them, Hans returns the dog and collects the money. They make the mistake of kidnapping the shih tzu belonging to a gangster by the name of Charlie (Woody Harrelson), however, and Charlie is not pleased. Soon Billy, Hans, and Marty are running from Charlie, and finding all sorts of material to write about for Marty's screenplay on the way.
The cast was still good in this movie even though the plot was a little strange. People who like "screwball comedies" might like this film, and for the most part I did like it, but there was a lot of material in the plot that didn't really need to be there. Marty is trying to find seven psychopaths to write about, not knowing that (spoiler!) he was already hanging out with two of them, and we jump between him trying to find stories for his screenplay to Billy and Hans' quarrel with Harrelson's character, who loves his puppy even though he's "the bad guy."
Maybe see this movie. If you like oddball comedies or ones that aren't the norm, you might like this film. Overall, I thought the plot was interesting but could have used some work, and there was a lot of goriness throughout the film as well that could have been cut, in my opinion. Farrell, Harrelson, Walken, and Rockwell all have good chemistry together, and this helped to make some scenes memorable, and Rockwell, especially, stole the show; however, the film could have been a lot better if its script and plot were less convoluted.
Seven Psychopaths is in theaters now and is rated R with a runtime of 109 minutes. 2.5 stars out of 5.
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Liz Parker is a University of Michigan graduate with a degree in Creative Writing and Literature, and she loves going to the movies. Visit her at her movie blog Yes/No Films
