Saturday, November 10, 2012
Seven Psychopaths (MA 15+)
WRITER’S block is a creative mind’s greatest fear. Knowing
that those flowing juices in the brain have disappeared in place of a general
void is usually a worrying sign for many, and then usually followed by the
conclusion it comes down to a lack of artistic stimulation around them. It can
come from anywhere and affect anyone whether it be for the purpose of words, a
painting, or a performance. But as Hollywood tells us, it’s those who live in
Tinseltown that are the ones under the most pressure in this life.
While that’s not always the case in reality (JK Rowling’s Harry Potter struggle in the UK circa
book 5 comes to mind), the choice many make to move to Los Angeles for a shot
at the big time can be a blessing or a curse. Irishman screenwriter Marty
(Colin Farrell) thinks it’s the latter when his agent continues to hassle him
about a non-existent script.
Trying to help Marty through his case of writer’s block is
best friend Billy (Sam Rockwell), an actor who runs a puppy kidnapping business
with friend Hans (Christopher Walken). When Marty suggests an initial idea of
creating a story about seven psychopaths, they help him by trying to recruit
potential case studies.
Sure enough, LA has its crazies. We meet the first
psychopath in the opening sequence as two mafia men discuss the situation
surrounding a soon-to-be-murdered woman. The film continues in a similar
fashion as the reveals come in quick succession. Characters don’t develop
overnight, but in Marty’s mind it’s a whirlwind.
Their turn for the worse (because in a film about writing a
script, there’s always a conundrum) comes as Hans and Billy’s alternative
business attracts a customer all sorts of wrong. Charlie (Woody Harrelson) is a
gangster with a faulty gun – but he will NOT rest until his dog Bonny is
returned to him.
The weird and crazy mind of Martin McDonagh returns for the
first time since debut In Bruges,
this time away from Europe to where dreams are made of. And some crazy serial
killers. The film unfolds to them as it does to us, made up as it’s gone along.
Billy is visibly the craziest of the trio, but in his head he knows where the
movie will continue to go. And he, as we do, gets all the excitement as
components of drama, action and a contemporary Western shootout are mashed
together in a ridiculously entertaining story.
Much of that comes from a great energy captured by McDonagh.
Collaborating with Farrell again after In
Bruges, he gets a spirited performance from his leading man as well as from
both Rockwell and Walken. They make a formidable trio… who may all have social
problems, but can sit around and just talk as friends. That’s what Marty wants,
and to some extent that’s what he gets.
Rating:
4/5*Published in the Daily Liberal (Dubbo), Western Advocate (Bathurst), Parkes Champion Post and Midstate Observer (Orange) from Saturday 10/11/2012
***
The English Patient (1996)
Michael Ondaatje’s sweeping lustful romance amid World War II is one of cinema’s modern classics, the Booker Prize-winning novel’s adaptation realised to widespread acclaim by critics and fans.
We come to know Count Laszlo de Almasy (Ralph Fiennes) after a plane crash renders him badly burned and transported to Italy. There, nurse Hana (Juliette Binoche) cares for him as the war comes to an end.
The film is a feast for the senses as the story of his time in Egypt as a mapmaker for England’s Royal Geographical Society unravels. He falls in love with married woman Katherine (Kristen Scott Thomas), doomed from the earliest day, but director Anthony Minghella treats it with sensitivity. That should be obvious – he wrote 20 drafts of the screenplay.
With an original running time of
four hours and 10 minutes, two and a half hours seems a pittance. But the
steady story lets us in to an indescribable world; a vivid faraway land where
love is hesitant because of outlying circumstance. Fiennes leads a strong cast,
all of balanced importance who come out with Minghella strong in having made a
thought-provoking and satisfying film.
MISSED LAST WEEK'S REVIEWS? See what I thought of Bachelorette and The Age of Innocence.
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