By M. William Smith
How important is a narrative when watching a movie?
Cinema exists in a world of moving images. Whether a story is told well or not, at least some emphasis has to be placed on its visuals. Nicolas Winding Refn makes films that are often slow, methodical, and inaccessible. 2011’s Drive was his first real attempt at breaking into the mainstream, but even when attempting to break into the popular culture, the film still received a polarizing reaction (for the record, I’m of the belief that Drive is pretty incredible). Two years later, Refn has done a complete 180 in terms of the type of movie he has made: while Drive was a mainstream film with arthouse sensibilities, Only God Forgives makes no false promises about what it is trying to be. Those who hated Drive will likely hate this movie; there’s even a good chance that those who liked Drive will hate this movie. But Only God Forgives delivers one of the most haunting cinematic experiences of the year, and it demands to be seen.
The narrative is admittedly a bit thin, and at times, nonsensical. But Only God Forgives could care less about its narrative. Its power stems from the careful, Kubrick-esque deliberation present in every frame. The film’s cinematography and lighting combine to create a picture both beautiful and terrifying. Refn plays around with symmetry in his shots to great effect, and I can only imagine how much of the film’s budget was spent on red light bulbs for every scene. Cliff Martinez’s score is also flat-out incredible. It’s a worthy follow-up to his work on Drive and something I’ll likely be listening to for days to come. The film, like most of Refn’s films, moves at a slow pace, but it never feels disjointed, and never drags. It’s a short film (roughly 90 minutes), and every frame feels necessary.
Ryan Gosling stars as the film’s de facto lead (though it is something of an ensemble piece), as Julian, an American living in Bangkok working in the criminal underworld. His performance is similar to his work in Drive, but with one crucial difference: where the Driver was a criminal trying to be a hero, Julian is a criminal out for revenge. This makes everything Gosling does seem a bit more sadistic, and the sudden bursts of violence throughout the film are appropriately shocking. Gosling hardly speaks throughout (again, similar to Drive), but he conveys so much with his facial expression, and when he does speak, it means something. The relationship between Julian and his mother, Crystal (played by Kristin Scott Thomas), provides the most intriguing element of the film. Julian needs his mother’s approval but knows he’ll never have it, and that desire is the driving force of Only God Forgives.
Only God Forgives is tense, deliberate, occasionally hilarious, and completely aware of what it wants to be. During a year where a great deal of films have played things a bit too safe, Refn’s film is brimming with experimentation, with a total disregard for the mainstream and a willingness to be something different. Only God Forgives goes beyond what a film can or can’t do. Only God Forgives is pure cinema.
Final Grade: A
