Review of Only God Forgives (2013) by Victor T — 08 Jun 2015

After the massive critical success that "Drive" was, director Nicolas Winding Refn had to face some humongous expectations for his follow-up and second Gosling collaboration: Only God Forgives. But at the time of its release the reaction was extremely mixed, most people called it a disaster, disappointment, and pretentious; but a small amount of people were comparing it to some of the works of two of my favorite directors-David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick. Which of these statements describes what "Only God Forgives" truly is?

Julian is a USA citizen who's in the drug business in Bangkok. His older brother is killed after committing some atrocious acts and Julian decides to hunt down the killer but soon realize that it may not be as simple/straightforward as he believes.

After watching this film, it is more than evident why some people hate it and why some people compare it to said directors. On the negative aspect, "Only God Forgives" counts with an inconsistent pacing, unlike "Drive" that was all about the slow pacing/set up, the pacing remains slow throughout the film´s running time despite the fact the story demands progression in certain scenes, the color and lighting are gorgeous but at times they distract you, the characters are just representations/metaphors, the camera angles are what you would expect form an art film but they don't work with the editing presented in here, the acting falls flat, it borrows a lot of elements from "Drive", while some of the metaphors/religious symbolism are blatantly obvious others are unnecessary -even if they are left to the viewer´s interpretation-, Refn´s direction is pretentious as he tries too hard to create a Lynch surreal/dream state like narrative with some Terrence Malick like imagery but completely fails, the setting/"characters" are so dark and disturbing that you will never be invested in this narrative and you may even struggle to watch this film because of that (Look, I'm a fan of dark films and complex characters with imperfections, but this film creates a disturbing background for this characters that's impossible to sympathize or like this film, you may like it as a work of art but not the narrative aspect), and the extreme violence goes too far without any reason whatsoever. Now let's examine the positives found within this film: The cinematography is jaw dropping, the atmosphere crafted here is beautiful, the soundtrack is impressive, when the film goes for the art house camera movements/angles it completely succeeds, and it serves as a fascinating study of religion and the nature of evil.

"Only God Forgives" is a beautifully shot revenge film. It is a slightly bizarre and pretty dark art-house failure. Esthetically it is a masterpiece but narratively it is heavy-handed, pretentious (a word I hate but sadly there is no better way to describe this film) and forgettable. If you enjoy films that are filled with metaphors and extreme violence, this film is made for you but if you expect a well written story with complex characters, you will be disappointed. A film worth seen due to its beauty but nothing else.