![Only God Forgives [2013]](https://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/only-god-forgives-poster.jpg)
Only God Forgives [2013]
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Writer: Nicolas Winding Refn
Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vithaya Pansringarm
Running Time: 90 minutes
After the critical success of 2011’s Drive, my personal movie of the year, all eyes were focused on director Nicolas Winding Refn. What would he do to follow up his breakout hit? If you had guessed he would make a violent crime drama with incredibly sparse dialogue and a nearly non-existent plot, give yourself a hand.
Ryan Gosling once again takes the lead, this time playing Julian, a mysterious drug smuggler in the seedy Bangkok underworld. After his brother Billy (Tom Burke) is murdered for raping and killing a young prostitute, Julian does not immediately seek vengeance. In fact, he does nothing at all. This infuriates his domineering mother, Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas), who flies into Thailand with the ferocity of a Griselda Blanco. She will do whatever it takes to hunt down and kill those involved with her son’s death, and Julian is her pawn in this whether he likes it or not.
![Only God Forgives [2013]](https://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/only-god-forgives-gosling.jpg)
This is a simple revenge story, one that takes its sweet time getting anywhere. There is a lot of staring with no words being spoken, and characters are frequently shown to be walking in slow motion. This is “artsy” to the point of exhaustion, and those with little patience will find this a chore to sit through.
Yet there is still something resembling a good film beneath this tedium. Refn’s direction is as stylish as ever, and Bangkok comes to life with an assortment of vibrant neon colors. Many scenes are awash in blue and bright red, and the film itself is quite stunning to look at.
![Only God Forgives [2013]](https://twscritic.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/only-god-forgives-thomas.jpg)
The performances are also memorable. While Gosling does not appear to change his facial expression even once during the entire film, Kristin Scott Thomas is a tour-de-force as the mafioso-like matriarch. Even as her character spews inappropriate diatribe about the size of her son’s genitalia, she remains convincing. Vithaya Pansringam also delivers a quite enjoyable performance as Lt. Chang, the powerful police officer who had a hand in Billy’s death. He comes across as someone who should not be messed with. At all.
Only God Forgives is a divisive film through and through. While not everything works, this is still a visual spectacle that has enough eye candy to make up for some of its weaknesses. At the very least, this further proves that Refn is a filmmaker that knows how to get people talking about his work, and he doesn’t seem to give a damn about what any of us may think.
Good review Eric. Yes, it is very weird, but that’s what I was expecting from Refn. Liked it a bit better than Drive, even if that isn’t saying too much considering I wasn’t a huge fan of that critical-darling.
Thanks dude. I enjoyed Drive a lot more than this one, but they are completely different films for sure.
While I do like Drive better, Only God Forgives is a close second. Like you said, very beautiful and Refn definitely knows how to cause a ruckus. I loved the plot and premise. Great write-up!
Thanks man. I have a feeling this one will be better on subsequent viewings. Glad to hear you enjoyed it.
I didn’t really care for this movie. I have no intelligent description why.. just a simple “it was eh.” Not very helpful, but that’s my two cents.
Nah, I totally get where you’re coming from. This one could really go either way, depending on what you’re expecting from the film. I’m somewhere in the middle.
I liked this slightly more than you, not much though. Nice write up buddy
Thanks, Tyson, glad to see you around. 🙂
Refn certainly doesn’t give a damn by the looks of it Eric. That’s exactly why I really took this this one. Brave and bold filmmaking that refused to follow conventions. It wasn’t quite the Drive that most were expecting but I found it to be a more metaphorical piece of work.
More metaphorical is a good way to put it, and yeah, it is certainly a brave piece of filmmaking. Even though I didn’t connect with all of it, I can certainly appreciate Refn’s vision. I’ll watch anything that he comes out with. Thanks, Mark.
I thought the soundtrack of the movie deserves to be used in a much better film. It raised it from 1/10 to 2/10 for me 🙂
Haha, ouch. At least you enjoyed the soundtrack. 🙂
Nice review. Still have to check this out, but I’ve lowered my expectations after seeing some of the negative reviews.
Thanks dude. It’s certainly worth a look. Curious to hear what you will think of it.
Nicely done Eric. I quite enjoyed this, I thought it really asked questions of its audience. However, I can definitely see why some haven’t liked it, it’s a very acquired taste.
Thanks man. Yeah, I can definitely see why this is a polarizing film. Most seem to love it or hate it.
Honestly, what a waste of time (not your review – the film haha). Firstly, Refn should have kept the film completely silent considering how awful the dialogue was. Refn makes his film more about the mood than anything else, but when everything else is embarrassingly falling apart, its hard to let the mood take over. Gosling is unfortunately stuck playing a dull character that I don’t feel he had the right presence for, and when he finally shows some emotion it becomes so over the top, it’s laughable.
I love me some Kristen Scott Thomas, but she came across very amateurish.
Nice review, but Only God Forgives stands as one of the worst films of the year for me.
Ouch. I agree that some of the dialogue was pretty bad, but I quite enjoyed Kristen Scott Thomas’s performance. She did the best she could with what she had.
You and me pretty much agreed on every point with this film.
I really wanted to like this one more than I did…