Review: 'Only God Forgives' Starring Ryan Gosling

Casual audiences may have choked on the art house verve of Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive, but those on the critical side of the fence largely fell in love with amount of pure machismo he injected into the action film. His first pairing with cinematic kindred spirit Ryan Gosling was a revelation, an electric neon-infused neo-noir with adrenaline to spare. So Only God Forgivesarrives with a mountain of expectation, and despite a split reaction out of Cannes, the belief that what we'll get is more of what made Drive such an eye-opening experience. Well, that much is true. We do get a lot more of it, but without characters worth investing in, or a coherent narrative to follow, all of Refn's stylistic flourishes have a diminished impact.

From the blood red and pitch black aesthetic, Refn's film looks like it was dragged from the pit of Hell and dropped sizzling in the heart of Bangkok. Visually it's a stunner, and Refn indulges his every creative urge to an almost ridiculous degree, and at least in the beginning it's nothing short of mesmerizing. Gosling, in a comatose-mode that makes his Drive character seem like a speed freak by comparison, plays Julian, the manager of a Thai kickboxing gym that caters to the underworld. Julian's cold distance is balanced in the worst way by his reprehensible and uncontrollable brother, Billy (Tom Burke), who goes out on the town looking for a teenaged girl to rape. After callously asking a pimp to send in his 14-year old daughter, he takes to raping and murdering a 16-year old girl. The arrival of the enigmatic police captain Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm) also ushers in the film's disturbing view of justice and personal honor, as he locks Billy in a room with the murdered girl's distraught father. Predictably, he leaves the room splattered crimson after beating Billy to death. It's not enough for Chang, who dishes out his brand of punishment on the father as well, in extremely gruesome fashion.

Billy's death sparks a need for revenge, but not necessarily by Julian. His hotheaded, unhinged mother Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas) flies in from Florida, where she's been managing the family's drug trade from afar, and demands Julian bring Chang's "head on a platter!!". It's obvious right away who the preferred son was in her eyes, and her frustration with Julian's passive attitude only causes her to become even more vengeful, taking matters into her own hands. The oedipal relationship between mother and son is played with in a number of different ways, mostly through the film's heavy use of surrealism and lurid sense of focus.

Violence is used sparingly but when it happens it's blunt and nasty and stomach-churning stuff. Arms are lopped off with wanton abandon, eyes are gouged and heads stomped into a fine paste, and Refn seems to be loving every single moment of it. While he's also enamored with the gorgeous production design, he's less concerned about establishing a plot to support it. Refn has done solid work before presenting brawny films without much of a narrative structure, and in that way Only God Forgives draws greater comparison to his excellent Viking flick Valhalla Rising. But that film at least had a clearer focus on the One-Eye character played triumphantly by Mads Mikkelsen, whereas the only character who comes close to matching that here is Chang, who is very much a supporting player. It's a wonder that Gosling was on set for more than a couple of hours because he has practically nothing to do, zero emotion to display, and spends the bulk of his time staring off blankly into the distance in what may or may not be dream sequences. For unknown reasons, characters stalk through long, colorful hallways at a snail's pace with no clear purpose.

The Valhalla Rising comparison is apt, as well, because it highlights a change in Refn as he's reached a certain career apex. His prior films felt like the work of an auteur making movies in a style not everyone would understand, but to Hell with those who didn't. It was that attitude which drew legions of Refn supporters and staunch defenders of movies like Bronson and Drive in the face of some public scrutiny. But Only God Forgives is different, and looks like Refn giving his audience what he thinks they want, rather than flexing his substantial creative muscles. At times the film is over stylized almost to the point of mocking self-parody, and one can't help but wonder if Refn is reading his own press clippings.

Whatever the reasons for the film's meandering pace and threadbare plotting, it sparks to life in the final 30 minutes as all of these hideous characters begin to collide. Just as the various trailers and clips had suggested, Kristin Scott Thomas is a fireball as the worst mother ever. It's a role we've never seen from the refined actress, glammed up with blond hair and a snazzy wardrobe totally unlike her usual image. Every word that comes out of her mouth is pure venom, every insult a quotable gem, and the film would suffer without her if it wasn't for the presence of Vithaya Pansringarm. While his role is considerably less flashy than Thomas', his command every time he's on screen is unmistakable. It's a charisma he exudes whether he's exacting lethal justice with his katana or when he's engaging in karaoke during the film's oddest moments. Gosling is more apathetic than we've ever seen him, but he steps up his game when opposite Pansringarm in a perfectly-scored and simply awesome fight sequence. There jazz and synth-heavy soundtrack is phenomenal, and a character unto itself.

Only God Forgives is more disappointing than genuinely bad. It's got everything we've come to love from Refn stylistically, without offering up much more than that. We've come to the pairing of Refn and Gosling to push a few boundaries, and hopefully that's what they'll do next time.