Directed by:
Nicolas Winding RefnScreenplay:
Nicolas Winding RefnCinematography:
Larry SmithComposer:
Cliff MartinezCast:
Ryan Gosling, Vithaya Pansringarm, Kristin Scott Thomas, Yayaying Rhatha Phongam, Tom Burke, Gordon Brown, Oak Keerati, Byron Gibson, Sahajak Boonthanakit (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
Ryan Gosling and the director of DRIVE, Nicolas Winding Refn, are back with this visionary Bangkok-set thriller. Julian (Gosling) is a drug kingpin tasked with avenging his brother's death, but a mysterious, unhinged policeman is following his every move. (official distributor synopsis)
Videos (6)
Reviews (12)
A pseudo-art game with symbols, vague characters, and a story about revenge and (lack of) forgiveness, in which fantastic cinematography and the unintentional ridiculousness of Gosling's vacant stare reign supreme. Overall, it’s enough for the biggest movie pose and epic fail of the year because I haven't seen a movie in a long time that shows so much of what it wants to be and works exactly the opposite way; I want to read a long analysis of it by a film theorist.
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Unlike Drive, this time I didn't get the impression that I was watching (or trying to watch) a self-important film about nothing. Only God Forgives is a very stylish, gritty short story from the Asian underworld, which confuses the viewer but is not confused itself, it moves forward a snail’s pace, but also at a persistent pace and boils under a seemingly immobile neon color level. The flaw on its beauty is only the not-exactly-convincing performance by Ryan Gosling - the silent looks in his performance look the same all the time, and I can't even imagine what he's experiencing or what he's thinking. Kristin Scott Thomas, of course, is in a completely different acting league, and her overbearing, bashful mobster makes her memorable.
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Refn made a name for himself with the film Drive and decided that his approach must work every time. And so, once again, we get a gritty spectacle with blood splattering, stoic acting performances, long shots that mostly say nothing, and familiar faces, which Refn has been successfully incorporating since Valhalla Rising. The first half hour is fine and could bring almost anything, even a Tarantino-style bloodbath, but Refn won't give you that. He continues to stylize his film and does things his own way. I have to say, his approach to violence simply works for me. It looks incredibly good and realistic, which is enhanced by the use of a static camera. However, Julian's fight with the mob boss is an utter travesty. Unfortunately, the second half of the film is really about nothing, and the violence alone just can't save it. It's a shame because the start was much more promising.
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Had it not been for the success of Drive, Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas would’ve never agreed to star in Only God Forgives, a film so anti-audience that I doubt it will get a wider cinema release in the US. A not exactly model American family operating in Bangkok makes a local machete-wielding police chief very angry. Who is related to whom is revealed only gradually, with the steadily rising body count. Everyone is a psycho either raping fourteen-year-olds, dealing drugs or poking people’s eyes out. Omnipresent darkness, deliberately placed lanterns and neon images, dragon symbols in the red half-light, slow-moving figures, dark or psychedelic music, and Ryan Gosling staring into space as hard as never before. The film plays with audience expectations, misleads, hypnotizes, scares, sometimes fascinates, but does not provide any final satisfaction. Vithaya Pansringarm’s cop is a properly demonic sadist, while the mother played by Kristin Scott Thomas is a properly unscrupulous bitch. A strange movie that will make you think, but doesn’t come to any conclusions.
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An experience that from the viewer’s perspective is something that combines orgasmic feelings with getting your fingernails ripped out, when you had the misfortune to be born with twenty fingers on each hand. The subjective running time of 300 years admittedly hypnotizes you with its visual fetish and almost hollowed-out narrative, where Gosling, for example, could easily have been replaced with a plush imitation of himself and it wouldn't have mattered. I don't begrudge Refn making films for himself; what bothers me is that he's considered a fantastic director, with his obsessive fascination with the image proving that, as a director, he's actually incompetent and lacking any kind of insight. And I don't buy his dedication to Jodorowsky as an alibi. Only God Forgives is essentially a photo-novel due to its static nature, and perhaps the likes of Greenaway would eat it for breakfast. In all its negatives, the film is reminiscent of the director's American debut, Fear X, or the anti-intellectual I Come with the Rain. But I can't help it, it's delicious eye-candy and offended me only a little bit. Now it's up to Refn what he comes up with next; I'd recommend a genre film, otherwise he doesn't have much of a place in a world where Gaspar Noé, Harmony Korine, or Danny Boyle are making visual art spectacles. I look forward to the reviews.
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