Only God Forgives

A Partially Educated Review of Only God Forgives

In which I don't know if God would feel a need to forgive, more than just go "Meh"

Self-belief good, pretentiousness bad. It's a simple rule, but it's not always the easiest to follow. Self-belief leads to ambition, which, if not handled properly, leads to pretension and sometime it's possible to get there without even realising it. I live in the belief that, at some point, I'll probably stray into that territory in one of my reviews without realising it. For all I know, I already have. What I do know though is Nicolas Winding Refn is definitely capable of it. A recent BBC interview was opened with the question: "When did you fall in love with film?". His response (and I'm paraphrasing here, as I was unable to find a video to re-watch the interview) was "I would say that film fell in love with me." Interesting, thought I. Then I pondered on that statement only to realise that it was one of the most egregious examples of self-service since earlier in the year when Tarantino declared (and I'm not paraphrasing here) "I am responsible for people talking about slavery in America in a way that they have not in 30 years".

And 12 months later, Steve McQueen is responsible for showing the world that Django Unchained is nowhere near as good as people first thought.

I appreciate this is setting things up for a complete drubbing as far as Only God Forgives is concerned. Indeed, I wouldn't be alone as it's one of, if not the most polarising film of last year, as far as reception from fans and critics alike is concerned. In addition, the film's, at times overbearing, pretentiousness would usually leave me completely put off. So why then, do I feel a resounding sense of indifference to it?

Ryan Gosling plays Julian, an American drug-smuggler living in Thailand. His older brother, Billy (Tom Burke), is murdered by the father of an underage prostitute that Billy himself raped and then murdered. This leads to Julian being ordered by his mother Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas) to return the favour, not only against Billy's murderer, but also the police who allowed the murder to happen. So far, so standard revenge thriller, but this, to his credit, is something that Winding Refn (here serving as both director and writer) would never allow to happen. He acknowledges the basic and overused revenge plot and then puts in his own stylistic touches to try and create something different. At times this works, at others it doesn't.

To it's credit, the film looks and sounds amazing. Everything from lighting and sound design to the cinematography work together to create a generally nasty feel to the film. This is oppressive in it's nature and the dim, seedy atmosphere remains present for the duration, only briefly letting up when the characters walk into areas they are yet to contaminate. The sound is dark and moody, relying far more on short, deep flourishes than it does on full pieces of music. This suits it far better than when music plays a bigger part; a critical fight scene has the brutality sadly undersold by the same music that's at the start of the trailer playing over it. 

While this nastiness is perfectly suited to Only God Forgives, it also manages to simultaneously create flaws, predominantly in the lack of a real human element. It's not that the characters aren't in the slightest bit likeable because there are twinges of humanity in Gosling. I emphasise twinges. The problem is that anything that may let you relate to the character is crude and sandwiched into situations that are partially his creation. As he watches a lady place her fingers within herself for his own enjoyment, tears being to fill his eyes. Any regret this may demonstrate is negated by the fact that he's still making her do it.

It's also impossible to see the remotest justification in his quest for revenge because he is avenging the murder of a paedophile, by murdering the murderers. It's not that the film isn't aware of this, it's fully aware of it and rarely seems like it's trying to say otherwise. The problem with this is that, in the end, it's all rendered a little predictable. Any doubts that you may have will be because it's a Winding Refn film and the expectation is that he will shake things up a little bit. As far as plot goes, he doesn't.

While Only God Forgives is a wordy film by Winding Refn's own standards, it isn't by general standards. When dialogue is used, it's used because it's essential rather than because they worried that people will get bored. In addition, he adopts an acid-trip style of presentation, complete with his viewing Julian's own hallucinations with him. Where it works, it works very well, but sometimes it feels recycled. There are images here that you will have seen before and some even border on clichéd (blood pouring from a tap, an endlessly expanding corridor). Whether you loved or hated his previous films (and God did I hate Valhalla Rising), you could never try and say that they were like anything you had seen before. Not so with Only God Forgives. While it's true that no one else makes films like Winding Refn does, he has made enough films for his style to become familiar and feel far too similar to his past work. The freshness is beginning to wear off.

For the performances, it all feels a little par for the course. Ryan Gosling smoulders… a lot. His eyes have the coldness that they demonstrated in Drive and, yes, he may have the looks to make the girls swoon, but it's all starting to feel a little bit samey. Personality is slowly leaving him to the point where Keanu Reeves may soon be suing him for trademark infringement. Meanwhile, Vithaya Pansringarm takes on the chief antagonist role, seemingly having come from out of nowhere other than The Prince And Me 4 and a brief part in The Hangover 2. Unfortunately, Pansringarm is given little to do other than look mean, chop people's arms off and sing karaoke. Not that we're stereotyping here.

Praise her parents then for the exception to the rule that is Kristin Scott Thomas, delivering a fantastic and, for her, completely unique performance that completely and very much metaphorically (definitely not literally) lights the film up whenever she's around. With an incredibly twisted sense of honour and equally messed up opinions on who's bringing that honour to her family (that would be the paedophile son again), Crystal is the very personification of evil. What Lady Macbeth was to her husband, Crystal is to her sons, seemingly displaying the same knowledge of their bedroom-bound assets. With her strengths and weaknesses on full show, Crystal feels like the only character who is vaguely human in the most repugnant and entirely unrelateable sense of the word. Whilst it helps that Winding Refn is blatantly in love with her and thus makes sure she's the best-written character, without Scott Thomas' performance that would be all for nought.

Then, we have the violence and this brings us back to Mr Tarantino as he and Winding Refn have both had hefty portions of their career defined by the use of extreme violence. However, as far as Windng Refn is concerned, he makes Tarantino look like Richard Curtis. The critical difference is in reality. The cartoonish style that Tarantino often displays is entirely shunned by Winding Refn as everything he presents feels painfully and horrifically real. This has a torture scene that owes a debt to Reservoir Dogs, but, for outright grimness, surpasses it in every way. That's not necessarily to say it's a better approach, as both of their methods usually achieve their intentions. Personally, I'm more inclined to hearing it, rather than seeing it as the imagination will often conjure up images far worse than anything that the film would ever show. However, if success is based on effectiveness, then it works here.

I started Only God Forgives, fully expecting to follow it with a passionate review. It seemed like the sort of film where I'd want to commemorate it on my wall. I'd either frame it in a beautiful antique golden shrine or fire a nail-gun through the disc, ensuring that it would never sully my screen again. Instead, it's just not bad. It's perfectly watchable and, for the most part, was entirely competent at holding my attention. There are moments of absolute brilliance, but these are balanced out by moments of lesser quality. In the end though, Only God Forgives' critical problem is that it is it's own biggest fan, to the point where I'm not sure anyone could ever like it as much as it likes itself.

THREE out of five