Review of Only God Forgives (2013) by Jesse O — 25 Mar 2014

This is a great 30-minute short film stretched out to an, almost, insufferable 90 minutes. I will never complain about the film's technical prowess though, as the film is definitely a feast for the eyes.

It's such a shame, though, that the story is so utterly hollow and uninteresting. The film substitutes storytelling for unflinching violence and shocking images. And with the visual style, the violence just looks that much better.

But just because it looks great, doesn't make it a good movie. There's practically no story to speak of, with the exception of Julian's relationship with his mother and how her domineering and emasculating way, almost revealing a pattern of sexual abuse committed by her, of being with Julian has caused him problems in connecting and relating to women on a romantic level.

That's literally the most interesting thing about the film's story, that and Kristin Scott Thomas' performance, which is really the saving grace of the film. But that stuff you pick up from by the way the characters act around each other or certain things Julian's mother would say.

It's definitely more subtle and I thought that part of the film, at least, was a little interesting. But considering how much they could've actually done with this, it turns out to be a massive disappointment in the long run.

Cause Julian's mother disappears for a good chunk of the film. It wouldn't surprise me if the script for this film was insanely short and that's why the film has such a slow pace. And in this case, slow is equal to boring.

There's long shots of characters walking slowly, staring at each other for long periods of time without saying anything. It's really as tedious as it sounds. It'd be one thing if the story that was actually there was interesting enough to make the slower moments worth sitting through.

I think of The Wall when I say this. That film is definitely more methodically paced than even THIS movie, but there's so much subtext, so much symbolism and so many mysteries of the circumstances the main character finds herself in to explore that the film is still great to watch.

It might feel like it's longer than it actually is, but it's still ab great film because of everything that's implicit. This film, however, doesn't have subtext or symbolism, well it does have symbolism but it's not particularly good, the film just wants to shock and awe just for the sake of it.

I think it'd work if the film didn't try to pretend to be an art-house film. That gives it the appearance of the film actually being deeper and more complex that it actually is. I wasn't fooled, but I'm pretty sure that Nicolas Winding Refn, having bought himself a lot of goodwill with Drive, an incredible movie, will have some people actually buying this drivel as something more than it actually is.

The film has its moments, mostly all of them belonging to Kristin Scott Thomas and her great performance. And the fact that the film is so visually stylish also scores it a lot of points. Another problem is the fact that the film is so ironic.

It takes itself so seriously, so that makes a lot of the film so unintentionally funny. This is a midnight movie that's unaware of that fact. You could say the same thing about Drive, but at least Drive had a great story, incredible action, fabulous visuals, a great soundtrack.

And, most importantly, it wasn't a chore to watch. This film makes for a great trailer and not much else. Great visuals and one great performance does not a great movie make.