ONLY GOD FORGIVES

ONLY GOD FORGIVES Review

By Darin Skaggs

     One of the most critically acclaimed films of recent memory is Nicholas Winding Refn’s Drive.  That is a super stylized film about an unnamed stunt man, played by Ryan Gosling, who goes around murdering people all in the name of love or something.  In Refn’s new film Only God Forgives the style is taken up to the next level with less story, less character development and limited dialogue.  That all works with great success.

     Only God Forgives begins with Gosling’s character, Julian staring off to the side.  His brother is looking for trouble and he finds it.  He rapes a 16 year old girl.  He is then murdered for his actions.  Gosling wants to get revenge, or not, though he leaves the murderer alone.  His mother comes to get the body and yells at Julian for not getting his revenge for her first son.  She hires people to assassinate the murderer, Chang.  Chang survives and tries to figure out who put the hit on him.

     The film will be divisive probably for the rest of time.  It is so stylized that you can’t help but look away and some will not want to watch after the first few minutes.  Most of the first half hour is wordless and lit so much in red lighting that all the characters are also lit in the red bulbs.  It is also hard to follow the story at times with some random characters and dream sequences that don’t present themselves as dreams. 

     The villain in this film is one of the most interesting of the year.  He is treated like an invincible man.  He spends the film with little emotion on his face with only his sword and occasionally other weapons.  Maybe the film says the good guy always comes in last or at least most of the time.  There is a scene where the Chang and Julian are going to have a fist fight.  The whole film has been leading to this moment because Julian has been looking at his hands in reality and in his dreams.  Yet, the scene goes a different way.  It goes a way you do not see coming and if you stuck with the film thus far you might become even more furious with it.

     The film is slow paced, no real payoff, but that is not the point.  At times Refn is trying to tell us how cool he is and what he can do, but there is enough style to keep the patient people interested.