Only God Forgives hasn't gotten the most positive reception in recent cinematic memory. Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, perhaps the hype established by its precursors Drive and Val Halla Rising set the pedestal too high. Or perhaps it is merely undeserving of that level of praise. Now, I'm a Refn fan - as the handful of saps who actually read this blog could easily attest to - and may be subject to bias. But hell, the benefit of writing an open source blog is my opinions are, well, my own and I answer to no one. Especially since no one reads this blog, aha!
In any case, Only God Forgives is... interesting. Gosling has been criticized for his performance - or lack of performance - and this is probably due to his frequent portrayal of similarly withdrawn, almost entirely internalized characters. I believe it was more successful in Drive because his character was foiled by a very alive, emotional, and turbulent atmosphere of supporting characters. Only God Forgives' atmosphere is so flatly hostile it is like a desert of the heart. It is a heavily discomforting experience.
This is what the film achieves, more than anything. The pacing, tone and cinematography are carried through the film's body like a blood disease. I can't think of a single scene in which violence was not - if not the overt visual stimulus of a scene - the underlying theme. You feel the movie more than you watch it, if that makes any sense. Now don't get me wrong, art for the sake of art in my experience is usually shlock and I'm not disagreeing with the legions of cinemaphiles who've panned Only God Forgives as an excessive and even pornographic snuff film (watch Gosling fuck with his fists!) - just laying out what worked for me.
It actually reminds me of Kubrick's The Shining in that it functions on the same level - something subliminal and emotional rather than overt storytelling. The ghosts and violence merely dressing up what Kubrick was saying about the human condition. Actually, I was also reminded of Black Swan - the director achieves what Darren Aranofsky achieves on an emotional level. I walked out of Black Swan feeling filthy and guilty and morally bankrupt in face of the opposite sex. Only God Forgives is more surreal though - if Hollywood had a bad dream it likely would be directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.
Equating it to a cinematic nightmare seems appropriate to me - the film is composed entirely of narrative and atmospheric perversions which gnarl common cinema tropes. The jacket reads like a standard Hollywood cop flick; brother murdered, revenge, city. But (spoilers) the brother is killed after having murdered a 16 year old girl. The city is foreign and not North American, its values and mechanics alien, and so hued in blood and neon it makes a better Baator than Bangkok. The family values are grossly skewed - our protagonists are criminals at best and thugs otherwise and the ugly, Oepidal relationship between Julian (Gosling) and his mother is neither pleasant to watch nor contemplate. The fragmented relationship he tries to establish with Mai, a local prostitute, is sterile. There is a distinct absence of love as most audiences would typically understand it. Our characters navigate by a dark ethical compass. It is impossible to relate to them on any other level but by the lowest human compunction. The film and imagery move forward with the deliberate and inevitable onslaught of a nightmare until you can't quite remember if you chose to watch it in the first place or if you're just waiting to wake up.
Lieutenant Chang ismy favourite character in this movie. Cam, if you watch this, watch it for him. He is more a force of nature than a human being - he dominates the script like the Old Testament God. His presence enforces Julian and his family as farang (the Thai equivalent of gai jin) and their utter hopelessness. He sings beautiful Thai karaoke. He is the devil. I am reminded of Sheriff Cooley in O Brother Where Art Thou; fires reflected against the soulless mirror sheen of his sunglasses. "The law? The law is a human institution." Lt. Chang deals in justice, and in Bangkok justice is divine.
In any case, I'm going to try and update this more often - a whole summer of work has granted me little time to sit down and - ah fuck it. There's always time to sit down and write. And at the end of the day, I can just write about work, can't I? Maybe I will.
Ciao.
