What do you get when you combine a Irish director, a star cast and a stolen Shih Tzu? It sounds like a movie with all the right elements, but “Seven Psychopaths” loses its potential while trying too hard to be different.
Marty (Colin Farrell) is a writer struggling to finish his new screenplay about seven psychopaths. When he gets caught up in a dog heist scheme with his friends Billy (Sam Rockwell) and Hans (Christopher Walken), Marty realizes the psychopaths he is looking for are around him.
Director Martin McDonagh wants “Seven Psychopaths” to be funny, but it takes itself too seriously for the audience to pick out where it’s making fun of itself. The movie did have its good moments, but just when the plot is picking up, it becomes stagnant. It goes from exploding heads and gun fights to long talks in the desert.
Not surprisingly, the acting is excellent. Walken makes the religious old man character relatable, while Rockwell is great at playing the crazy, almost unstable best friend. Colin Farrell does what he can with his character, who is the epitome of the cliche drunk, tortured writer that it leaves little room for him to give Marty any depth.
“Seven Psychopaths” is not frustrating enough for viewers to want to give up, but just enough to leave them unsatisfied at the end.
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