Only God Forgives (2013)

Only God Forgives (2013)
Director:  Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vithaya Pansringarm
Runtime: 90mins

After Nicolas Winding Refn's previous film 'Drive' I was expecting a lot from Only God Forgives. I expected another good performance from Ryan Gosling, another good score from composer Cliff Martinez and more of the beautiful cinematography and I got that. Gosling gives a solid performance, quiet and brooding like the Driver but this character is slightly unhinged as shown in a scene where he tells his 'girlfriend' to give him the dress he gave her back.

This is my mad face.

Kristen Scott Thomas is also fantastic as the despicable mother of Gosling's character as she gives a performance that really made me despise her with her harsh words and worse actions. Vithaya Pansringarm, who only got into acting in 2008 after meeting a cameraman at a party, also gives a strong performance. He plays a policeman who takes justice into his own hands. It may be that his character believes himself to be the film's titular God, passing judgement on the citizens of Bangkok, while blurring the lines of whether he is good or bad.

Vithaya Pansringarm and his backscratcher.

The score from Martinez, as earlier noted, is again fantastic. I'm a big fan of films that use music as an extra layer to the narrative, Drive did it fantastically, Tarantino and his collaborators are obviously brilliant at it, Donnie Darko was another film where the music added to its feel. The music in Only God Forgives, traditionally Thai in places, really compliments its abstract look which is beautiful. Again, as in Drive the cinematography was masterful. There's a real contrast of colour in different shots, with red against blue and black against white both dominant. This may reflect the stark contrast of good and bad in (most of) the main characters, and the bad does seem to almost always happen with a red glow to it. Gosling's brother's (played by Tom Burke) most violent action and demise takes place in blood red light as does the confrontation between Gosling and Pansringarm. Another use of Red and Blue is in Thai Boxing, with each colour adorning the fighters in the opposing corners and with the sport being a part of the film this again reflects in the opposite of the two colours.

I'm blue, da-ba-de.

Yet with all of my pre-expectations of good acting, cinematography and sound for Only God Forgives being met, I just did not like it. I was left feeling very underwhelmed, disappointed and to be honest, I was even bored. The film is slow paced which isn't normally something I complain about, but it's almost as if Refn was aiming for a release in art galleries rather than cinemas. If the long, moody, staring into distance scenes were cut out then Only God Forgives would only be 20 minutes long and while that's an obvious exaggeration it puts my point across, not a lot seems to happen. Yes there is a good fight scene, there's the hit attempt and the fallout from that but it's the filler moments that let Refn down. There are also scenes that, to me, didn't make much sense. There are scenes that I presume to be dream sequences that just don't really fit. Now I'm not someone who has to have the plot all explained, I enjoy a film that leaves me pondering but unfortunately here it felt like Refn was being confusing just for the sake of it.

That it, stare moodily, keep doing that. For 90 minutes.

I'm not going to write Refn off after one film that I didn't particularly enjoy as he has produced some great work and Only God Forgives certainly has it's plus points. It has stunning visuals, great acting and a wonderful sound but unfortunately it just feels a little flat.

Only God Forgives scores 2 out of 5.

Let us know in the comments whether you agree or disagree.