In 2011, director Nicolas Winding Refn and his newest muse Ryan Gosling delivered Drive, a hyper-stylised, ultra-violent film that managed to balance its blood-soaked action sequences with emotional depth and character development. As a result, the film leapt to the top of many critics’ ‘Best Of 2011’ lists. Two years later, Refn and Gosling have re-teamed for Only God Forgives, a film that’s even more hyper-stylised and ultra-violent than Drive. Unfortunately, it dives into its own little arty rabbit-hole of aesthetics and violence, and forgets to emerge at least once in a while with characters who are more than empty cyphers passing as human beings.
Julian (Gosling) is an American in Bangkok, making a living off the illegal boxing club and drug trafficking ring he runs with his brother Billy. One fateful night, Billy is brutally murdered a horrifically violent event that brings their crime boss matriarch Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas) to town. Refusing to let the matter rest, she goads the more pacifist Julian into avenging his brother: a mission that ultimately pits him against the malevolent, seemingly unstoppable Lieutenant Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm).
Only God Forgives is an exercise in style over substance. It looks absolutely gorgeous: every frame is composed with exacting precision, lines and colours balanced for optimum aesthetic effect. Throughout the film, Gosling can be found staring moodily into the distance or at a Thai prostitute, bathed in an artistic mix of shadows and blood-red light. He is lit beautifully as he broods sexily (and in slow motion). Even moments of extreme violence are cut together with a visual flair that speaks well of Larry Smith`s moody cinematography. If Refn were planning to make a feature-length scrolling wallpaper to decorate computer desktops or digital photo frames, he`s succeeded admirably.
But one suspects that Refn was planning to make an actual movie, and that`s where he regrettably falls short. His beautifully-shot film doesn`t have much of a heart or a soul. It`s not merely because his characters are unlikeable and shallow many great films have made protagonists out of thoroughly reprehensible human beings. (See: pretty much any of the Coen brothers` films about idiots committing crimes.) It`s that Refn tries so obviously to pass off his characters` physical and verbal abuse of one another as art or psychology.
Not even actors as good as Scott Thomas and Gosling can salvage matters when what little dialogue they are given mainly spoken by hectoring, nightmarish mom Crystal or thugs begging for their lives or appendages is ponderous and unrealistic. In fact, Scott Thomas seems to have walked out of some ghastly, gothic pantomime, a harpy coolly appraising the size and worth of her youngest son`s manhood. There`s sadness, depth and pain here, surely… but Refn never really manages to render these shades of emotional and psychological complexity convincing or credible.
There`s a great concept or two lingering within Only God Forgives. Once in a while, the weight of Julian`s tragic life playing second fiddle to a monster of a brother, never good enough for his monster of a mother can be glimpsed amidst Refn`s proliferation of slow-mo arty shots. But, as the screams and blood build up and then fade away, what`s left is a film that one can barely muster up the energy to admire, much less love.
Summary: An almost unforgivable mess considering its pedigree.
RATING: 1.5 out of 5 stars
Shawne Wang