After being both booed and applauded at the Cannes Film Festival, “Only God Forgives” faces an ambiguous fate with how audiences will receive it. The minimalist thriller fails to live up to “Drive”, Nicolas Winding Refn’s previous effort with Ryan Gosling, and audiences may more likely lean toward the jeers rather than the cheers.
What at first appears to be a stylistic homage to the cold beauty of Stanley Kubrick’s films’ collapses under a weak storyline and equally uninteresting characters. The thin narrative follows Julian (Gosling), an American drug dealer who roams around the exotic city of Bangkok and encounters trouble with Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm), a broadly drawn caricature of an Asian cop who happens to carry a stereotypical samurai sword.
Each of their encounters with passersby is particularly brutal. This violence, unfortunately, is one of the only notable qualities of “Forgives.” For a revenge film, it lacks much of the psychological haunting the best protagonists of the genre employ. Instead, it relies too heavily on physical violence to truly resonate with viewers.
All of this gratuitous violence is also crammed into a short runtime. Even so, the film drags on, mostly due to a severe lack of dialogue and extended tracking shots that reveal little information about what is happening on the screen. The film is composed of seemingly disconnected yet visually stunning segments, but this structure fails to allow the narrative to ever truly blossom. Because of this vague unveiling of what is actually a simple story, the film’s heavily stylized aesthetic is difficult to appreciate.
Julian is too similar to the Driver of “Drive,” which includes a clearer yet more complex story arc that excuses the introspection, dryness and muteness of its main character. This directorial mode fails in “Only God Forgives,” and as a result, Gosling’s performance shows nowhere near as much talent as he displayed in Refn’s last film.
Kristin Scott Thomas, who plays Crystal, Julian’s spiteful mother, outshines Gosling. She serves as the film’s most unlikeable character thanks to her foul-mouthed and rude demeanor. However, the role is a radical change from her usual prim and proper characters, and it is really Thomas who steals the show over the poker-faced Gosling.
The music selection is pleasantly bizarre — its lullaby-like theme contrasts wonderfully with the gory visuals. The track “Wanna Fight,” which plays during the climactic fistfight duel between Julian and Chang, is a refreshing blend of processed sci-fi and disorienting horror.
Ultimately, “Only God Forgives” forgoes substance for style. The extent of its graphic violence is shocking, but to consider it artistic is absurd. Only die-hard Ryan Gosling and Nicolas Winding Refn fans, or cinephiles with great patience, should consider this film amongst the many others releasing this summer.
Nora Chang is a contributing writer. Email her at [email protected].
