Ryan McNeil
Everybody wants to be a badass.
In an age where anti-heroes are followed weekly on television, everyone seems to be romanced by the complicated characters that make cheering for the bad guy so much fun. It makes us want to say nasty things and commit bad deeds. It makes us want to pull on a scorpion jacket and hurt people. However, being a badass is about more than a steely demeanour and a few well-chosen words. It also comes with a heavy price of admission…a price that eventually needs to be paid in blood. It’s a price that so many think they are capable of coughing up, but so few are truly prepared to pay.
ONLY GOD FORGIVES is the story of Julien (Ryan Gosling), an American who runs a fight club in Bangkok. As the film begins, Julien’s brother Billy goes to a brothel where he rapes and kills an underage prostitute. After he surrenders to police, a Lieutenant named Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm) nicknamed “The Angel of Death” hands him over to the prostitute’s father. Billy is beaten to death by the father, but the father is then punished by The Angel for allowing his daughters into prostitution. The Angel’s choice in punishment is to cut the father’s hand off.
Back to Billy, his death requires his mother Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas) to fly to Bangkok and identify his body. Once there, she presses Julien to avenge Billy’s death. She wants him to find the man responsible for Billy’s murder, and kill him in retaliation. When Julien seems unwilling, she turns to a fe foot soldiers in the family’s drug trade to get the job done.
When the prostitute’s father turns up dead, The Angel of Death is displeased. Here is a situation where his justice was usurped, and now someone else needs to pay. Thus, The Angel begins to look for the foot soldier who did the deed, and violently track responsibility back up the chain of command.
ONLY GOD FORGIVES is a dirty movie.
To be clear, it’s not “a dirty movie” in the way that it contains a lot of sex and coarse language (though there is some). It’s dirty in the way that it tells the story of bad people in a greasy underworld who are presented in deceptively handsome fashion. The clothes they wear are stylish, the rooms they inhabit are lavish, but the things they do and the words they speak are vile, dingy, grimy and very, very nasty. It’s a contradiction that will throw a lot of people off about this film, but the contradiction that makes it so memorable.
Many will come to this film expecting more of what they saw in Nicolas Winding Refn’s previous film, DRIVE. That would be a mistake, as ONLY GOD FORGIVES is far more stoic, and in many ways more avant-garde. To be sure, some of what made DRIVE a success is on display in this movie too, but ONLY GOD FORGIVES has more in common with a David Lynch movie than it does with a movie that left film fans in a tither two autumns ago. This time, the story isn’t a straight up crime yarn as it is a descent into a twisted hell hole. This pit is a place where the rooms are pretty, the beatings are brutal, the characters are loathsome, and someone gets up and sings.
At times, this Lynchian approach to its story works against it – especially in the early going. In that first half-hour, the film seems to be testing its audience. It’s then that the fever dream is at its most feverish. It’s then that a deplorable request (and a deplorable act) set the wheels in motion. It’s then that so few words are spoken. And it’s then that one checks their watch wondering how much more of this they have to go.
But at the end of that first act, all is well. Kristin Scott Thomas arrives and strikes a match against the powder keg.
Considering how big a star Ryan Gosling has become, it seems strange to say that he gets upstaged in his own film…but that’s precisely what happens. Late in this film he takes a physical beating from The Angel of Death, but it’s nothing compared to the emasculation he suffers at the hands of his own mother. Everything about Kristin Scott Thomas’ portrayal of Crystal in this movie is designed to shock the audience: her garish clothing, her filthy language, even her trashy spray-on tan. What really shocks us though, is the way she enters into a bad situation and makes it immeasurably worse. It plays wonderfully against the performances we’ve come to know and love from Kristin Scott Thomas. Here she’s no matron: she’s a matriarch. There’s a difference.
Across enemy lines, Gosling is also upstaged by Vithaya Pansringarm. Once again, we’ve been given a movie where Ryan Gosling says very little. He’s taking the “walk softly and carry a bog stick” approach. However, he can’t hold a candle to Pansringarm who walks even softer and carries a bigger – and far sharper – stick. He’s a man who doesn’t need to dress flashy to intimidate…and every scene he’s in, he intimidates. Pansingarm is absolutely badass in this film, and a model of what it is to be in control of a very bad situation.
ONLY GOD FORGIVES won’t be for everybody. It’s a film that lures one in with the promise of a silk purse, and then hands one a sow’s ear. Its violence and dialogue are heinous, and sometimes seem hellbent on shocking the audience. The true test is that opening half hour, which might seem insufferable to some. However, the film takes risks where so many similar films would play things safe. It’s a movie that rewards patience and consideration, and sticks with its viewers in a time of year where so many other films are disposable.
This is a film bent on the theme of true punishment, and delights in watching he punishers become the punished.
Comparing to Lynch is so wrong-headed. Lynch is a master visual storyteller and Refn has no idea what he’s doing.
While I agree with you that David Lynch is a master visual storyteller, considering he is my favorite filmmaker and that he and Refn are not very comparable, I disagree that Refn has “no idea what he’s doing” and I don’t think there is anyway to justify that especially after watching “Only God Forgives”.
Everything about the film is in service of its visual language. In some many ways, its the perfect example of the economy of the narrative. He gives exactly all you need to know about the characters, environment, and story. Every image reinforces and develops the next. It’s meticulously crafted. In so many ways, “Only God Forgives” reminded me of a Kubrick film and not just in the way he composes his images, but also how there is a incredible sense of control and command that the director has, and you as the audience can feel it.
Where I question the Lynch comparison is in the fact that for the most part, Refn isn’t interested in exploring the emotional stakes of his characters, its purely psychological. Where the comparison does become relevant is that Refn knows how to visualize Julian’s pain as a character, and that is what David Lynch has always been a master of; depicting the internal pain of his characters.
What Zack said.
I don’t think that OGF is full-on “Lynchian”, just that there are brush strokes here and there…the karaoke scenes especially. The violence and absurdity were what sparked the comparison in my brain, and admittedly I haven’t seen a whole boatload of Lynch (MULLHOLLAND, VELVET, and WILD AT HEART).
Thanks, Ryan. Not my type of movie.
Definitely not!
filthy for the sake of filth. and no substance to back it up.
I can’t argue with that, but then again I wonder if Refn has really ever aimed for substance with his films. Further, whether that’s a bad thing…
I’m with Zach on this one, too. (Although I’ll say upfront that I’ve never been a huge Lynch fan, so my defense of him won’t be as staunch as some.) Refn’s filmmaking this far as struck me as very purposeful, very meticulous, and “Only God Forgives” is no exception in my mind. Don’t get me wrong; I can’t really say I LIKED this movie (I might be sent to a shrink if I did). But to say Refn is basically clueless about how to make movies? I disagree. The guy creates atmosphere like few others do these days. And I’d go so far as to argue there WAS some substance to OGF; it’s a matter of whether we LIKED what the substance was. Reading about the themes he was trying to express about God and humanity and Julian’s path…it all added up for me. Still, this would rank as maybe a 2 out of 4 for me, less than what Ryan gave it, but more than I’d ever grant some filmmaker who “has no idea what he’s doing.”
This whole thing (which I only just saw yesterday, so it’s still kind of marinating in my brain) reminded me a little bit of a movie I absolutely loved, and I think it’s no coincidence that Gaspar Noe gets a mention in the end credits here: I had a few “Enter The Void” flashbacks during OGF, and in my world that’s a good thing.
As for something I suspect we can all agree on, Kristin Scott Thomas really, REALLY brought it, didn’t she? My god. I’ve long heard that she’s terribly difficult to work with on set, so I tip my hat to her for being game and up for everything this role asked of her, and then some. She owned every frame of this film, even the ones she wasn’t in!
It’s like hating the song, but respecting the singer – right?
There are few filmmakers whose body of work have left me with less to hold on to than NWR, but I don’t dislike any of his films. They leave me cold – sometimes even leave me repulsed – but I’m engaged by what I’m seeing while I’m seeing it.
You’re not the first person to mention Noe in relation to this film (someone else I know nodded towards IRREVERSIBLE). All of that now leaves me wicked-curious to finally push play on ENTER THE VOID. I’ll just have to wait for a day when I can immediately follow the film with a walk in the sunshine to recover.
If you were impressed by Kristin Scott Thomas, you should listen to the podcast episode we recorded about this film – lots of talk about her character and her performance!