Only God Forgives
2013
**
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vithaya Pansringarm, Ratha Phongam, Gordon Brown, Tom Burke
Drive was a beautifully directed mood piece which ended in a numbing orgy of graphic violence. The latest collaboration between Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling continues the same style-over-substance approach, with one little difference; this pulpy and silly crime flick is sadistically violent from beginning to end. Now Gosling plays Julian, an American whose family runs a drug business in Bangkok. When his brother rapes and kills a 16-year-old prostitute and dies in a retribution attack organised by a (sword-wielding karaoke-loving) cop, Julian is prepared to let it pass, but the boys' mother isn't. There is no denying that the film looks spectacular. All the people appear to walk in slow motion, and everything in the frame is designed to within an inch of its life. Blood flows and the picture is permanently hued in red, like the finale of Taxi Driver streched over 90 minutes. If only there was a script to go with all the eye candy, or a character who was recognisably human. Well, at least Cliff Martinez provides another wonderfully powerful soundtrack.
