‘You didn’t think I’m serious just because I carry a rabbit around?!’
Seven Psychopaths is the forgotten child of Martin McDonagh’s feature films. This is odd because it’s as funny as In Bruges, it’s as ambitious as The Banshees of Inisherin and as with Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, it features an electric performance from Sam Rockwell. So, why has it been forgotten?
Marty (Colin Farrell) is trying to write a screenplay about seven psychopaths. Unfortunately, Marty’s friend Billy (Rockwell) is very much one of the titular psychopaths and his involvement in the project becomes complicated when he gets involved with a bunch of other psychopaths from the Los Angeles underworld. These include a gangster obsessed with his dog (Woody Harrelson), a lunatic obsessed with his rabbit (Tom Waits) and a Vietnamese priest obsessed with revenge (Long Nguyen). There is a lot going on in this movie…
…and therein lies the rub. If anything, Seven Psychopaths is too ambitious. McDonagh packs in so many ideas and so much meta-commentary that viewing the finished film is an overwhelming experience. When it’s good, however, McDonagh’s second feature film is very good. I haven’t even mentioned Christopher Walken yet who provides perhaps the most Christopher Walken performance of all time and his comedic interplay with Farrell and Rockwell is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny.
In the end, Seven Psychopaths is perhaps not quite as good as the sum of its parts, but it marks a stepping stone from the straightforward gangster comedy of In Bruges to the more sophisticated fare that would come to define McDonagh’s later career. It also boasts a spectacular soundtrack. Any film that features Tom Waits continuously stroking a rabbit is always going to be a winner.