Kristin Scott Thomas

Only God Forgives: laughably bad

by
ONLY GOD FORGIVES

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.

DVD of the Week: Sarah’s Key

by

Kristin Scott Thomas stars in another French film, this time as a journalist tracking the story of a girl during the WWII roundup of Jews in France.  Her probe of events almost sixty years in the past becomes more and more personal, and profoundly entangles more and more people.  It’s a compelling story, and no actor can portray intensity and doggedness better than Scott Thomas.  Co-stars Niels Arestrup (A Prophet) and Aidan Quinn.

Sarah’s Key: an investigation becomes unexpectedly personal

by

Kristin Scott Thomas stars in another French film, this time as a journalist tracking the story of a girl during the WWII roundup of Jews in France.  Her probe of events almost sixty years in the past becomes more and more personal, and profoundly entangles more and more people.  It’s a compelling story, and no actor can portray intensity and doggedness better than Scott Thomas.  Co-stars Niels Arestrup (A Prophet) and Aidan Quinn.

DVD of the Week: Kristin Scott Thomas in I've Loved You So Long

by

Yesterday, I was underwhelmed by Leaving despite Kristin Scott Thomas’ great performance.  Here is a much better movie with an even better Thomas performance.  I’ve Loved You So Long was the best film of 2008.   A sad woman (Thomas) is released from prison.  She moves in with her sister, and her back story unfolds in multiple totally unanticipated surprises.   A transformative film about loss and redemption.

One of my 10 Great Movies You Missed in the 2000s.

For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Leaving (Partir)

by

Leaving (Partir) has another powerful performance by Kristin Scott Thomas and not much else.  Thomas plays an under-appreciated French wife of comfortable means who falls in love with a good-hearted but unlucky Spanish laborer.  Sergi Lopez (Pan’s Labyrinth, Dirty Pretty Things) is appealing as the lover.  Her husband is not understanding and makes her life devoid of comfort, and the movie becomes a heavy-handed romantic tragedy.  So the story lets us down.  But Thomas, especially in French films (I’ve Loved You So Long), may be the best screen actress in the world, and her performance is another masterwork.

Still, it’s good to see a third serious film about middle-aged romance this year (after I Am Love and Mademoiselle Chambon).  All three have fine performances by their leading ladies, but Leaving is still the weakest of the three.