Martin McDonagh is one of my favorite film directors and play writes. His last film was In Bruges, for which he was nominated for a best original screenplay Oscar.
He writes crisp, witty dialogue within scenes of dark humorous mayhem. His success on stage and screen has been highly worthy of all the acclaim he receives.
This makes the arrival of his new film, 7 Psychopaths, a highly anticipated event that unfortunately is a bit of a let down.
Colin Farrell plays a Hollywood screenwriter named,
Martin (of course) who is having a hard time getting his next work moving. He has the title, also 7 Psychopaths, but can't seem to get beyond that. As the film begins we see some of his original fictional psychopaths portrayed via short on screen vignettes. These opening scenes are wildly funny and filled with McDonagh’s characteristic dark witty dialogue. Then the characters become less fictional and join his real world. This is where the film begins to lose itself, which unfortunately is for most of the story.
Safe to say, there are some great actors in the film such as Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell and Woody
Harrelson who play fun to watch characters steeply involved in Martin’s world. There are also a number of cameos from familiar faces in some nicely inventive scenes that often recall some of the best of Quentin
Tarantino.

Yet the narrative becomes a bit too plot-heavy and
McDonagh’s charm becomes lost in trying to balance an array of psychopathic sub stories. At a recent screening of the film I attended in which McDonagh was part of a
Q & A, he said was trying to make a commentary on the amount of violence in movies and trying to pair that with a spiritual journey. Neither idea though is ever really fully developed. The wit dies down and the narrative loses a lot of steam.
That's a shame since McDonagh has assembled a terrific cast who all do some fine work. I think he may have been trying to do too much in this rather uneven exercise. I'm not giving up on McDonagh though. His work is already destined for long-term enjoyment.
Many of our greats have had at least one disappointing misfire, this time it’s McDonagh. (Note: After writing this review I’ve seen the film again and have a greater appreciation for its humor. Even imperfect McDonagh is better than a lot of what’s out there!)