Only God Forgives Review
'Time to meet the Devil' reads the tagline for Drive-team Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling's latest collaboration, Only God Forgives. The film's tagline, and its title for that matter, very explicitly reveals the film's Old Testament, wrath of God-style nature. This is not a traditional, dialogue-driven film. This is first and foremost a parable on sin and punishment, where the darkest traits of humanity are explored, and where everyone must atone for their wickedness.
Julian (Ryan Gosling) runs a Thai boxing club in Bangkok, though the club is a front for the drug trafficking business run by his mother, Crystal (Kristin Scott-Thomas). His brother Billy (Tom Burke) is a despicable piece of shit who gets off on raping and beating young girls. When Billy eventually kills a 16 year old prostitute, the sword-wielding Policeman Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm) is called to the scene and administers his own brand of righteous justice by allowing the girl's father to pummel Billy into red chunks. Think that's the end of it? Chang's not satisfied until the father is made to atone for his shitty parenting skills. In this world, no one escapes judgment.
Crystal flies into town to view what's left of her firstborn child's corpse, and she's mad as hell that Julian has done nothing to avenge his brother. Julian knows that the scumbag got what he deserved, but his mother, being just as twisted and ruthless as her deceased son once was, adored Billy and sets in motion a series of events to get her revenge on the cop that took him away. Unfortunately for Julian, that means getting dragged into a situation he doesn't want to be in - one that will send him on a collision course with Chang, the ‘angel of vengeance’.
In Drive, Gosling played a quiet, heroic man that adhered to a code. While not exactly a moral code, he was a character that fiercely believed in right and wrong. Most of those same characteristics apply to the character of Julian, albeit with a few key differences. For starters, he's even quieter; Gosling's dialogue in the film would struggle to fill a couple of cue cards. If you already had a problem with the 'man of few words' approach that he displayed in Drive, then you’re shit out of luck here.
He isn't much a hero in this film, either. While he is a man of certain morals, he's far from being an unstoppable badass. If it were up to him, he’d sit this whole thing out entirely. Julian knows he deserves punishment for past transgressions, as well as his current lifestyle. He’s a sad, guilt-filled man, whose sexual encounters involve being tied to a chair as a spectator while imagining himself being mutilated for getting too close.
He has the capacity to commit sudden acts of brutal violence, but it’s usually with a forced hand from his domineering and terrifying mother. Julian displays a very clear Oedipal Complex, likely spurned on by Crystal’s sexual taunting from a young age. During dinner conversation, his mother openly tells Julian’s date about his penis envy towards his brother. “Julian’s was never small, but Billy’s.... oh it was enormous! How do you compete with that?”
Kristin Scott-Thomas has the most talkative role in the film, and is exceptional playing against type as a woman whose blood must consist mostly of snake venom. While her character is a ghastly human being, Scott-Thomas is able to imbue Crystal with a wounded sense of vulnerability, as if she knows how heinous she is but can’t help herself. The standout in the film however, is Vithaya Pansringarm as Chang, a character with an almost mystical presence that hovers over the entire film, threatening to cut our characters down when they step out of line. If it’s only God that forgives, then Chang is his messenger and deliverer of judgment.
Many will find the film alienating. Its sparse dialogue, slow-burn nature, darkness, oppressive atmosphere and numerous karaoke scenes will not be everyone’s cup of tea. With this in mind, it’s important to remember that the film is a piece of art; an uncompromising vision formed by its director for the purposes of expression. Like any truly great artwork, Only God Forgives is not to be universally adored like so many other Ryan Gosling crowd pleasers that audiences are used to. That people’s opinions are so diametrically opposed when it comes to the film is a sign of its power to create a strong reaction.
Many film critics have become accustomed to making snap judgements on artworks, publishing insta-reviews dictated by deadlines as if there isn't room to ponder and interpret a film after viewing it. There’s closed-mindedness in this box office-obsessed, Rotten Tomatoes-age of film criticism that seeks to punish audacity in cinema. Only God Forgives has bore the brunt of this head on, with tabloid-esque ‘disaster’ headlines and surface-level analyses that do the artist, the film and the practice of film criticism a great disservice. Art isn't binary. It defies categories like 'awesome' or ‘terrible’.
Thankfully, Refn doesn’t give a damn about what the mainstream thinks of his work. One only needs to look back through his filmography, to films like Bronson and Valhalla Rising to know that Drive, his mainstream breakthrough, is the anomaly in his legacy thus far. Drive is a pulpy, pop-art classic, and on the surface his latest film looks to continue in that vein. While both films are indeed violent thrillers, Only God Forgives, with its relentlessly bleak vision of a black-hearted, neon-hued Sodom and Gomorrah-inspired Bangkok, makes Drive look like Cannonball Run by comparison.
Killings, maimings, bludgeonings and all manners of torture contribute to a stomach-turning air of dread throughout the entire picture, but there’s an underlying grace and beauty to every scene. Cinematographer Larry Smith (Eyes Wide Shut, Bronson) finds warmth in the darkest places; his camera capturing every squalid detail, with bright reds and ambers that emerge from the film’s many tenebrous surroundings. Perhaps the film’s most integral element, the one that makes it all come together, is the score by composer Cliff Martinez (Drive, Spring Breakers). In many ways, Only God Forgives is an opera; a mood piece that relies more on its music and visuals to set the tone than its dialogue. Martinez’s score perfectly complements the film’s themes with its use of traditional Thai folk music and modern electronic synths.
Only God Forgives is not a safe movie. It’s a film that deals in extremes, where the price for inhumanity is paid in flesh and blood. This is Refn joining the ranks of cinema's crazy genius elite; a place occupied by the likes of Gaspar Noé, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Lars Von Trier and David Lynch. In a world where film is getting treated more like product and less like art, a movie like this should be savoured. With Only God Forgives, Refn has delivered another masterpiece, one that will hopefully get its due in years to come.
★★★★★
Posted by Stephen Lambrechts - 28/6/2013
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