Produced by
Martin McDonagh
Graham Broadbent
Peter Czernin
Written by Martin McDonagh
Starring
Colin Farrell
Sam Rockwell
Woody Harrelson
Christopher Walken
Tom Waits
Abbie Cornish
Olga Kurylenko
Music by Carter Burwell
Cinematography Ben Davis
Editing by Lisa Gunning
Studio(s)
Film4
British Film Institute
Blueprint Pictures
Distributed by
CBS Films (United States)
Momentum Pictures (United Kingdom)
Release date(s)
7 September 2012 (TIFF)
12 October 2012 (United States)
Running time 110 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Budget $15 million
Box office $23,492,318
Seven Psychopaths is a 2012 British black comedy film written, co-produced and directed by Martin McDonagh. It stars Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson and Christopher Walken. The film marks the second collaboration between McDonagh and Farrell, following 2008's In Bruges.
Seven Psychopaths had its world premiere on 7 September 2012 at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was released in the United States and Canada on 12 October 2012, and it was released in the United Kingdom on 7 December 2012.
The first casting announcements were made on 12 May 2011.The film was made through the production company HanWay.
Mickey Rourke dropped out of The Expendables 2 to star in the film. He later dropped out of Seven Psychopaths after having disagreements with McDonagh, calling him a "jerk-off." He was later replaced by Woody Harrelson. On the incident, McDonagh said "I was fine with it. Mickey's a great actor [...] I've known Woody [Harrelson] for years and years, and he was a perfect choice for this, too. He's got those great dramatic elements, which he's shown in Rampart recently, and he's always been a fantastic comedian. You need that in this — someone who can be out-and-out funny, but also turn sinister on a dime."
Filming was completed late 2011. The first set photos were revealed on 11 November 2011. The North American release date was 12 October 2012.
Music
The film's score was composed by Carter Burwell, who previously composed the score to McDonaugh's In Bruges. Lakeshore Records released the soundtrack digitally on 23 October 2012, with a physical release date set for 20 November 2012.
Box office performance
Seven Psychopaths was released on 12 October 2012, and opened in 1,480 theaters in the United States, grossing $1,360,000 on its opening day and $4,275,000 on its opening weekend, ranking No. 9 with a per theater average of $2,889. On its second weekend, it dropped down to No. 11 and grossed $3,273,480, with a per theater average of $2,212. By its third weekend it dropped down even more to No. 15 and made $1,498,350, with a per theater average of $1,494.
Critical response
The film received positive reviews from the film critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 82% based on 194 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film holds an average score of 66%, based on 43 reviews, which indicates "generally favourable reviews."
Eric Kohn of IndieWire gave the film a positive review and a "A-" grade, praising McDonagh's writing, stating that it "hits a unique pitch between dark, bloody satire and interpersonal conflicts that makes his finest work play like a combination of Quentin Tarantino and Aaron Sorkin." About the film itself, he wrote: "A less controlled and slapdash character piece than In Bruges, McDonagh's new movie benefits greatly from a plethora of one-liners that toy with crime movie clichés in the unlikely context of writerly obsessions." Claudia Puig of USA Today also gave the film a positive review, writing that "men in movies are often just overgrown boys, and Seven Psychopaths is out to prove it — in the most twisted, hilarious way possible."Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, he praised the performances of main cast members and McDonagh's writing, he stating that "Walken sometimes leans toward self-parody, but here his performance has a delicate, contained strangeness. All of the actors are good, and Farrell wisely allows the showier performances to circle around him. Like any screenwriter — like Tarantino, for example, who is possibly McDonagh's inspiration here — he brings these people into being and stands back in amazement." About the film, he added: "This is a delightfully goofy, self-aware movie that knows it is a movie."Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B+" grade, stating: "An energetically demented psycho-killer comedy set in faux-noir L.A., Seven Psychopaths rollicks along to the unique narrative beat and language stylings of Anglo-Irish writer-director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges), channeling Quentin Tarantino."
David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter praised the performances of the main cast members, he stated: "As creatively bankrupt Marty, Farrell is in subdued mode here, his performance largely defined by the endless expressivity of his eyebrows. He serves as an excellent foil for Rockwell, whose line readings continually dance between knowingness and idiocy, and Walken, who ventures as far into deadpan as you can go while remaining conscious. And Harrelson has fun contrasting his devotion to Bonny with his contempt for humanity." He wrote about the film that "while it's way behind the Pulp Fiction curve, Seven Psychopaths can be terrifically entertaining."Catherine Shoard of The Guardian gave the film four stars out of five, indicating a positive review, she wrote: "There are scenes of complete brilliance, Walken is better than he's been in years, cute plot loops and grace notes."Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film three stars out of four, stating: "Blood splatters, heads explode, and McDonagh takes sassy, self-mocking shots at the very notion of being literary in Hollywood. It's crazy-killer fun."Ty Burr of Boston Globe also gave the film three stars out of four, stating that the film is "absurdly entertaining even after it disappears up its own hindquarters in the last act, and it gives some of our weirder actors ample room to play."
Michael Phillips of Chicago Tribune gave the film three stars out of four, writing that "the result is a clever, violent daydream. But McDonagh's skill behind the camera has grown considerably since In Bruges. And the way he writes, he's able to attract the ideal actors into his garden of psychopathology."Dana Stevens of Slate magazine gave the film a positive review, stating: "It's at once a gangster movie, a buddy comedy, and a meta-fictional exploration of the limits of both genres - and if that sounds impossible to pull off, well, McDonagh doesn't, quite. But the pure sick brio of Seven Psychopaths takes it a long way."Richard Corliss of Time magazine also gave the film a positive review, writing that "small in stature but consistently entertaining, Seven Psychopaths is a vacation from consequence for the Tony- and Oscar-winning author, and an unsupervised play date for his cast of screw-loose stars."James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, stating: "On balance, one could argue that Seven Psychopaths warrants a better rating than a mediocre **1/2, but the aftertaste is so bitter that it diminishes the sweetness that started off the meal."
Peter Debruge of Variety magazine, gave the film a mixed review, stating that "the film's overall tone is so cartoony, it's easy to imagine someone spinning off a macabre animated series of the same name....." and that "compared to McDonagh's best work for stage (The Lieutenant of Inishmore) and screen (In Bruges), Seven Psychopaths feels like either an older script knocking around the bottom of a drawer or a new one hastily tossed off between more ambitious projects."Kevin Jagernauth of The Playlist also gave the film a mixed review, stating that while "somewhat spastic and overcooked, Seven Psychopaths might have a few too many."
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