Nicolas Winding Refn's "Only God Forgives" came out earlier this year, but I've only just seen it. I can't recommend it for all, but for those who enjoyed "Drive" it is worth watching even if "Drive" is vastly superior. Julian (Ryan Gosling) runs a Muay Thai boxing club in Bangkok, which is a front for a drug smuggling operation that his brother, Billy, is in charge of. Billy is pretty much a bastard. He brutally rapes and kills an under-aged prostitute (artfully shown off-screen) before being caught by the police. A police lieutenant with a penchant for taking justice into his own hands, Chang, allows the father of the prostitute to kill Billy but then chops one of his arms off for allowing his daughters to be prostitutes. Julian goes to the one-armed man to seek revenge for the killing of his brother. But when he believes the man had justification in doing what he did, he lets him live. This infuriates Julian and Billy's mother, Crystal (the great Kristen Scott Thomas). She feigns love for Julian, but is utterly disappointed in the fact that he won't avenge his brother. She finds others to do her dirty work and this brings Chang down on both Julian and Crystal.
Unfortunately the film invites comparison to "Drive" and never succeeds quite as well as "Drive." This is largely because the symbolism related to the psyche of Julian doesn't really translate to anything coherent. Julian's character is mostly a taciturn, reluctant, momma's boy but we're never really given anything deeper than that (nor any indication that he's gotten over his issues in the end). Though "Drive" was equally minimalist in plot it some how worked to give us hints into Carrey Mulligan's hopefulness and Ryan Gosling's morality. Here Ryan Gosling's character is still somewhat of a moral beacon, but it's not always clear why, except that the film needs a hero of sorts. The only interesting character in the film is Kristen Scott Thomas's Crystal. Unfortunately, there's not enough screen time with her. However, she steals the show from all the other one-dimensional character's she's seen with
Formally, the film is genius and that's enough to watch it for die-hard Refn/"Drive" fans. The neon colors, the music, and Kubrick-esque camera work are all exquisitely done. It's a feast for the senses. The film's Lynchian violence is also exceptional. It's all about the build-up to ultra-violence. And when the violence comes, it's over quickly or mostly happens off-camera. Perhaps even better than the camera work and colors is the music. The music might even be better than the music in "Drive." It's a cool, synthetic sound that evokes "Inception" BRAMMY-ness.
In the end, it's unclear what the title suggestions. Is Chang God? Or is he the devil? Is Julian God? Is God God, and the rest of us are just unforgiving, revenge seeking pricks? It's not clear, but because the film isn't completely engaging on the level of plot nor emotions, it also doesn't make the viewer care much about getting the right interpretation (compare this year's best film so far "Upstream Color," which succeeds formally as well as substantively). However, just for it's formal brilliance, "Only God Forgives" is a good film if not a great one. It's my 10th favorite film of the year.
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