Ryan Gosling (center) prepares for combat against a cold, psychotic police officer with a God-complex. Gosling certainly invokes the silent air of Driver again in this film, but with a violent, quasi-schizophrenic twist.
First and foremost, you’re going to have to see the film again. As I was explaining to a friend, Only God Forgives by Nicholas Winding Refn felt like walking into a first date; I was too excited, and it took a couple minutes before I mentally calmed enough to really focus, which for this movie is needed from beginning to end. I’m honestly worried I might have missed something, and by the end of the review, I hope I’ll have explained why I have this concern. After my second and third viewing, what had caught my eye and twisted my brain and guts into a knot became apparent.
This was a very lean film. Refn really trimmed this down to the bare essentials, something that has not been entirely uncommon in his more recent films, Drive and Valhalla Rising. The film seemed to have only enough dialogue, plot, character development as was needed to be a coherent (not-abstract or entirely experimental) film. It gave the impression that he only used as much of any of those tools as he thought was needed to get across whatever message or idea he was trying for. Now although Refn, like any director, does not have to be trying to “get something across”, I think for this movie you have to assume he was. It was not Drive by any means; you could not go in and simply appreciate the music or cinematography and walk away feeling satisfied (although the music was eerie and created energy or lack thereof where it was needed, and there were a number of very visually pleasing/stimulating shots). Although Drive may also have had some underlying themes and ideas that the project on the whole hoped to convey, it is a bygone conclusion that this film did, or else the film would quite possibly be as empty as many other reviews have accused. Considering that Refn is an experienced film maker, we should be inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume there’s more here.
Director Nicholas Winding Refn (Left) directs with creative flare Kristin Scott Thomas (Right) who plays the repulsively twisted but beautiful female antagonist. Refn had imagined the part for KST but feared that due to budget issues, she might not agree; KST joined the crew without hesitation, a likely testament to how compelling Refn’s vision must be.
It’s not too hard to pull out major themes or concepts he is addressing or playing around with in this film. I think if you see it, many of you would walk away with many of the same ideas that I did about why Refn did A, B, C to accomplish conveyance of X, Y, Z. Some of them will be very easy. The only thing in the movie that seems to most assuredly tie into it almost entirely, but that I struggled with during the viewing, was the violence. Almost all of the violence was easy to fit into overarching themes or symbolism, but some of it (one scene in particular is coming to mind), is tougher to tie into it or not claim as excessive (unless your reaction is supposed to be gut wrenching disgust, which now that I think about it, actually makes sense with my overall theory for this…. actually I think I just explained away the last of my violence concerns). That being said, I find the movie on the whole like a series of incongruous blocks that I know are supposed to be in a much neater pattern, but that are still giving me a grinding headache to assemble. The slow assembling them into a pattern of comprehension that is both pleasing and clear, but the process is grinding and often halting. Honestly, it feels like a problem with tons of variables/factors, something that if it were anymore complex, I’d be unable to navigate it and would miss the point entirely (I’m thankful the movie is so short and not caked in too much dialogue or plot bc otherwise I’d be spending a lot of time drowning in details).
To wrap this up, I think anyone taking it at face value would think the movie was vapid. They would comment on the empty, zombie like performances of the actors with the equally empty music score, plot, etc., and that it failed to accomplish anything remotely cinematically valuable. I think this is the fairly ignorant, conservative but understandable reaction. I can’t say whether I liked it more or less than any of his other works, bc I think I haven’t had enough time with it yet. I think the film of his I can compare it to the best is definitely Valhalla Rising (also appeared “empty”, but drenched in nordic symbolism). Just know it’s not Drive, don’t go in with any preconceptions about what it might be, and give Refn the benefit of the doubt. What I loved most was just how visually, mentally, and physically stimulating it was; you had reactions to most everything in the movie, for better or worse, disgust or appeal. I think the Ryan Gosling-Refn team had another success with this movie and I hope to see yet another very soon. That’s about all I can say until I think about it more. Hope you see it and enjoy!
ethandazelle 