Nicholas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling team up again for the film Only God Forgives, this time, Gosling plays a druglord/ boxing ring owner in Thailand, whose brother has just been killed. It’s a very intricate set-up and this review would be too wordy if you give you the entire plot set-up. The film itself is only 1 hour 30 minutes, but it feels longer almost. Like Drive, Gosling rarely speaks. However, that is the only similarity, so Drive fans, don’t get your hopes up. The incredible Kristen Scott Thomas plays the creepy/crazy mother of Ryan’s character, Julian. She’s a hardcore mom and does not play around, to say the least. I adore her in this role because it’s another facet of her actor repertoire that I don’t think many people have been exposed to. Luckily, Refn had the vision of psycho murderess Dontella Versachi and Scott definitely delivers. However, it pains me to say, Gosling’s performance in this just wasn’t as intense as I would have liked it to be. It makes sense that he had a lot of character flaws because that’s who Julian is, a flawed killer with mommy issues. In this scenario though I don’t think Gosling fully gave it his all.
Now, let’s talk about my favorite part of this film: the cinematography. A mix of highs and lows, choice colors, it’s just such a dark film and so brilliantly shot. There is a lot of slow motion, but to compensate for those moments the films takes a speedier turn when the actions sequences role around. The colors beautifully reflect the dark and gritty nature of the Bangkok underground, and it is just so cool. If you want brilliant cinematography, just subject yourself to this film.
The plot itself wasn’t that fantastic, the ending is very open ended despite the beginning showing a lot of promise. I don’t know, I suppose my expectations for this film were too high, but I still enjoyed it.