Review of Only God Forgives (2013) by Craig M — 05 Jan 2014

Kristin Scott Thomas is off the rails here as Crystal, the drag queen-esque matriarch of a family drowning in the excess and sin of drugs, dames and dead bodies of Thailand. Ryan Gosling portrays her youngest son, Julian, himself a seemingly bipolar or divided personality (black versus white shirts, good versus bad actions). Both are in a psychosexual pas de deux with each other and in a thrillkilling cat-and-mouse game with a local police officer. The officer has a penchant for revenge against those who engage in the child sex industry, those like Billy, Crystal's son and Julian's older brother. And as act of revenge begets act of horrifying revenge, the two parties gather ever closer to an epic confrontation. The film is visually gorgeous, narratively appalling and ultimately dream-like.

Normally I would be put off by the trope of the Thai ladies whose sole purpose is as object of desire for egotist white westerners, but here it only highlights the cultural problems that beget the rape/ murder of the sixteen year old girl that starts the plot moving in the first place.