I can say only three good things about Only God Forgives. First, it’s not painfully bad, but laughably bad. Second, the great Kristin Scott Thomas is on-screen for 10-15 minutes in an outlandishly campy role. Third, this week presents the rare opportunity to see the best of cinema (The Hunt) and the worst (Only God Forgives) in a perverse double feature.
After combining on the thrilling Drive, director Nicholas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling return with Only God Forgives, a hyper-violent revenge tale. I loved Drive, with Winding Refn’s vivid colors and taut pacing, its shocking violence and Gosling’s evocative performance. Only God Forgives reprises the garish palette, but fails on the other aspects.
Gosling’s character, a pro kick-boxer and the henpecked son of a female crime lord, has little so personality that he could have played by Keanu Reeves. The exploitative violence doesn’t have the shock value of Drive’s. But, most unforgivably, the pacing drags. Winding Refn tries to deliver gravity by inserting pregnant pauses between virtually each shot. Typically, one character looks off camera, and there’s a pause and a dramatic musical chord; then another character looks back, with another pause and another chord. Look Pause Chord Look Pause Chord Look Pause Chord ad nauseam.
Kristin Scott Thomas plays Gosling’s evil mom and gets to utter this unforgettable line: “How many cocks can you entertain in that cute little cumdumster of yours?”.
Playing the cop villain, Thai actor Vithaya Pansringarm walks deliberately – very deliberately – around Bangkok and is very good at moving his eyes without moving his head. Oddly, after mutilating yet another person with his hidden sword, he enthralls a roomful of uniformed cops by crooning a karaoke ballad.
Highly anticipated (because of Drive), Only God Forgives got trashed by critics at Cannes and been reviled upon its US release. Only After Earth, The Lone Ranger and Pacific Rim may keep it out of the bottom spot as the year’s worst major release.