4/5 Popcorns

What do you get when you cross an alcoholic screenwriter, a psychotic gangster, two eccentric dog kidnappers and a fluffy little Shih Tzu named Bonny?

Not exactly a warm and fuzzy story.

“Seven Psychopaths” is an overblown frenzy of comedic violence, wittily amusing dialogue and enough homicidal whack-jobs to fill up the next few Quentin Tarantino movies. Writer and director Martin McDonagh crafts a gory jumble of absurd storylines and ridiculous characters, stirred into a thoroughly entertaining bloodbath.

Marty Faranan (Colin Farrell) has serious writer’s block. His overdue screenplay lies blank aside from the title, and drinking from dawn to dusk isn’t helping his creative process. Marty’s impulsive and eager-to-help best friend Billy Bickle (Sam Rockwell) puts an ad in L.A. Weekly calling all psychopaths to tell Marty their stories for his movie. Out of the woodwork come crazies like Zachariah (music legend Tom Waits) — a “Dexter”-esque serial killer of other serial killers — who supposedly offed psychos like the Zodiac Killer.

McDonagh’s film is a campy, reference-laden crime caper that mixes twisted reality with imaginary storylines inside Marty’s (Farrell) screenplay, aptly titled “Seven Psychopaths.” It’s a violent playground for the film’s gifted stars, featuring comically sadistic performances from Rockwell and Woody Harrelson, and a brilliantly strange Christopher Walken in his best role in years.

At the same time, Billy and his partner Hans (Walken) are kidnapping dogs and returning them for reward money. Business is great until Billy snatches the wrong Shih Tzu: the beloved pet of an insane mob boss named Charlie (Harrelson). Loads of senseless bloodshed ensues as Charlie and his henchmen track down the dog-nappers. Marty, Billy and Hans decide to hide out in the desert, but all roads lead to a gratuitously bloody showdown.

Farrell and Rockwell are the advertised leads, but this is Walken’s movie. No one can speak or, more importantly, curse, quite like him. Walken enunciates every line with phonetic precision in his signature wavering voice. Hans is the latest in Walken’s catalog of weird roles: a Quaker pacifist dog-napper, sauntering around in a faded, blue blazer with a cravat wrapped around his neck. Whether he’s joking with psychopaths or spending a quiet scene with his dying wife in a cancer ward, Hans is right at home.

McDonagh’s story is chock-full of flashy violence, but the movie is most creative when trying to make up another movie. The buddies sit around a campfire talking about an ex-Viet Cong warrior on a mission to kill the soldiers of Charlie Company, or a dramatic climax where all seven psychopaths die in an epic graveyard shootout. The best scenes are these quick-witted conversations imagining the made-up storylines of Marty’s script.

There’s not a bad performance in the film, which stars Farrell playing the sarcastic normal guy. In a role opposite his immature hit man from McDonagh’s “In Bruges,” Farrell’s understated acting wisely takes a backseat to the showier performances around him.

Rockwell and Harrelson excel as dueling maniacs playing hide and seek with the Shih Tzu. Rockwell’s wide-grinning Billy sports a silly, knitted hat, trying to manipulate the story like Marty’s bloodstained screenplay. He relishes taunting Harrelson’s neck-tattooed mob boss Charlie, who’s fully aware of how insane he is, but really just wants his dog back.

Waits’ Zachariah is the creepiest killer of the bunch, carefully recounting his grisly murder spree while stroking a soft, white bunny rabbit.

This self-aware genre parody tries to weave a mess of threads together at once. McDonagh juggles a large ensemble cast, cleverly bantering their way around an intersecting web of real and fictitious plotlines — until most of them are inevitably riddled with bullets. The madcap ending doesn’t tie together all the loose ends, but watching the film try is enjoyably demented fun.

“Seven Psychopaths” undertakes the daunting task of trying to subvert the modern crime genre in a post-Tarantino world. McDonagh lays out so many intentionally stereotypical characters and plotlines, and then tries to flip them all upside down.

It doesn’t quite work, but watching these raving nutcases fight over a Shih Tzu is still gleefully outrageous entertainment.

Published on October 18, 2012 at 12:39 am

Contact Rob: rjmarvin@syr.edu