It's difficult for me to write a review about "Only God Forgives", in the same way that it is difficult for someone who was hit by a truck to explain to first responders what just happened. This movie is a total sensory overload, and not in a good or stimulating way. It's like staring into the sun. It's astonishingly beautiful, for a few seconds, but then it starts to hurt, and you start to lose your vision, and then you go blind. "Only God Forgives" is one of the most bafflingly incoherent films I have ever seen. I will attempt to explain why it is terrible, but like I said, my eyes still hurt.
The film tells us the story of Julian, played by Ryan Gosling, and his quest for revenge through the streets of seedy, violent, prostitute-filled Bangkok. Julian is an American ex-pat who runs an underground boxing gym. He also deals drugs and likes to get into staring contests with beautiful hookers. His brother, a charming fellow, gets drunk one night and rapes and murders a 14 year old girl working in a brothel. He is then arrested and beaten to death, with the cooperation of the police, at the hands of the dead girl's father. Julian's mother comes into town to see that her son's death will not go unpunished. The rest of the movie is an orgy of blood, cleavage, swords, and mood lighting. It's heavy-handed, overlong, and somehow makes human dismemberment, dull and unfulfilling.
I am a huge fan of the director, Nicolas Winding Refn's pervious work. Namely "Bronson" and "Drive", the latter of which was one of my favorite films of 2011, so I was shocked by how terrible this movie was. He, in his own words, likes to make movies set in "heightened realities" like "fairy tales". That is true, but heightened realities and fairy tales are only compelling if there is a presented reality for it to be grounded in. For example, "The Wizard of Oz" doesn't work if we don't see Dorothy in Kansas before she gets to Oz. "Alice in Wonderland" doesn't work unless we see Alice's life BEFORE she falls into the rabbit hole. "The Matrix" doesn't work if....YOU get the idea. "Drive"; another revenge fueled violent thriller, works because the over the top crime-filled underbelly that most of the film lies in is surrounded by recognizable Los Angeles. "Only GOd Forgives" takes place in a fantasy Bangkok where everything is hued in neon red, murders and human torture can take place in public while no one bats an eye, and pretty much NOBODY talks or behaves like a normal human being. It's all very disconnected and alienating. Refn is very good behind the camera, especially when it comes to creating specific worlds for his characters to live in. There is something disturbingly beautiful about the way he portrays Bangkok, but after about five minutes it gets old, and it becomes obvious that he has played all of his aesthetic cards and we are left to sit and wonder what the hell is going on for the remaining 90 minutes.
I don't blame Refn entirely for the disaster of this film. He's an acquired taste and like him or not, he is very visually distinct and has a style that works for him. The performances might be the most disconcerting part of all this. Ryan Gosling is very handsome. I get it. I saw "The Notebook" "You're a bird, I'm a bird" made me swoon into delirium as well. But, seriously, I've had enough of him. He maybe has 11 lines of dialogue in the movie, all delivered in a gruff yet feminine Marlon Brando-esque mutter. His performance rests in about six to seven stare downs with other characters. We are never given any sense of what kind of man he is, other than the creepy kind. He acts like he was shooting a series of print ads for Calvin Klein, only speaking when he has no other choice. It's all very strange. Kristin Scott Thomas, who plays his vengeful, sadistic, incestuous mother, is equally weird. She seems to be channeling some sort of Real Housewives vibe, complete with a bleach blond wig and Juicy Couture sweatpants. Her character at least has some sort of outline, but everything she does and says is really REALLY mean, or befuddlingly cryptic. There is a scene that takes place at a fancy restaurant where Julian has taken his prostitute girlfriend to meet deal old mom, where she waxes poetic about the size of her dead son's dick. It may have been the funniest thing I have ever seen, or the dumbest. I don't think it was meant to be either. Both actors are more talented than this movie allows them to be, and part of me commends them for putting up with the wackiness that must have been the production of this picture.
The biggest problem, is what I said before, nothing anybody does in the movie makes any sense, and as a result, whatever point the movie is trying to make becomes moot. There are unearned passionate cries, gratuitous and inconsistent violence. One scene actually explicitly shows a guy getting his eye slit open. in close-up. Why? Because Fuck You, that's why..... apparently. I'm all for senseless violence, but at least ATTEMPT to put some meaning or reasoning behind it. I am not as demanding of a movie-goer as I might come off as. Give me something that makes sense and I can work with it, even if I don't like it, I can appreciate it and attempt to justify whatever meaning you try to put behind it. But this. THIS. I cannot abide. I refuse to accept that this is genuine auteur intellectual surrealist cinema. Because it isn't. It is grating. It is pointless. And it probably cost a lot of money.
And the script........you know what? I'm not going to even try. Seriously the movie is at least 75% silence and I am not refined enough to comment on any implied subtlety or nuance. It's not a good script. At least not in the way it is presented in the context of this movie. Although, I would be curious to
"Only God FOrgives" could have been good. Hell, it could have been great. However, with off the wall and ultimately dull performances, repetitive visuals, and inconsistent tonal shifts, it fails to deliver anything memorable or even palatable. Avoid it. Unless you're at my apartment six months from now and are playing the inevitable "Only God Forgives" drinking game. (Drink everytime you lose a staring contest with Gosling)
2/10
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