Review of Only God Forgives (2013) by Caleb J — 11 Oct 2013

Refn's follow-up to indie hit Drive is the tale of Julian, a Muay-Thai promoter and drug dealer whose brother is murdered after murdering a sixteen year old prostitute. The film follows Julian as he tries to balance the conflicting pulls on his conscience of family and justice whilst also dealing with a local police chief intent on delivering his own brand of vigilante justice to all involved.

One of the hot talking points from this year's Cannes Film Festival; Only God Forgives seemed to have critics either praising it to the heavens or condemning it to hell. The level of the ultra-violence contained within the film came in for close scrutiny, with Refn branding himself a "pornographer" when it comes to violence on screen. Personally, I was a massive fan of Drive and was looking forward to the star/director partnership of Refn and Ryan Gosling reforming here. A small warning, spoilers are coming.

Sadly the film is an exercise in style over substance; it looks great, there are frames that will be burned onto your retinas for as long as you draw breath but this barely conceals the fact there is not a film here. Only God Forgives is dedicated to Argentinian director Alejandro Jodorowsky a man who is fond of symbolism within his scene set-up and its clear Refn was keen to follow suit. The frames drip with prison bar allusions, be it the beads hanging in a doorway, or the shadows cast in a room from the hot Bangkok sun. There is nothing wrong with this in principle (see any of Jodorowsky's films to see why) but beyond the idea that Refn wants us to know that Julian is caught in a family-commitment prison there is nothing else to infer to us. Again, there simply isn't enough going on to warrant much else in terms of exploration. There is a scene towards the end where I like to imagine it's possible Refn realised this and decided to mock his own film by inserting the scene at the end where his main character, suffering from severe mummy-issues cuts open his dead mother's womb.

Gosling is on some level to be admired, despite his fame for his looks he clearly seems intent on keeping his work filled with interesting ideas. As such, misses like this will occur. Given the similarity between Drive and Only God Forgives one is inclined to worry that as a collaborating force Refn and Gosling are perhaps too in awe of each other to really work well together. One can't imagine Martin Scorsese giving Leonardo DiCaprio this many perfectly framed close-ups or lingering shots of bulging biceps. As Julian's mother Kristen Scott Thomas is clearly having a ball getting to play a character type she's never had a shot at before. Her tone, her inflection, her posture and movement all serve to create an intimidating, terrible and ugly presence...a word I'd never thought I'd be able to use in relation to Kristen Scott-Thomas.

Refn has claimed that he was aiming for a modern western faiytale, a heightened reality in the slums of Bangkok. Reality here is not so much heightened as it is surplus to requirements, reality would simply get in the way of Refn's visual masturbation. All involved are too talented for the polarising fallout from this to have any effect on their careers but here's hoping they listen to the naysayers because for once they have a point. Drive worked because it had the story and the heart to back-up the visual style and incongruous soundtrack, therefore making it a refreshing take on a familiar tale. Only God Forgives fails because it has neither story, heart nor a point.