Only God Forgives (2013)

Don't Believe the Hype

As Good As It Gets

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I bave never seen anything this slow, this boring in my entire life. I felt I was watching the film Drive with the same lights and the same shots. Ryan is basically silent the whole goddamn movie with his a mask face. What is worse than this.

Very very boring ... bad acting ... slow actions ... gosling is very stupid to act in this film ... i guess its a backward step ... not recommended at all ... totally waste of time .

A simple story centred in a Freudian thematic (Oedipus complex) with a strong sense of justice. A visually astonishing picture with textures of decadence and hope in a dreamlike Lynchian ambience.The major number of reviewers here simply don't have the cinematographic skills to properly appreciate a good film as a piece of art and not just entertaining. The substantiation of their ratings is hollow as stock exchange shares, although it weights unjustly on the ranking of a film.

In Thailand, a drug trafficker's icy mother sends him on a mission to avenge his older brother death.Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives feels more like his Valhalla Rising (2009) rather than the more conventional and mainstream Drive (2011). The music is mesmerising, stirring the uneasiness of The Shinning (1980). It's atmospheric, stylish, quiet and yet ultra-violent, with the beats of an opera. It echoes elements of Diva (1981), Collateral (2004), Subway (1985) and David Lynch's dream-like quality to name a few. Ryan Gosling plays Julian Thompson, an American criminal who lives in Bangkok. Gosling smolders (with limited dialogue which appears to have become his trademark staple) Julian speaks less than 20 lines throughout the film. Kristin Scott Thomas shines as Crystal Thompson, Julian's mother, a merciless and terrifying mafia godmother, probably her most memorable role. The star though is Vithaya Pansringarm as the imposing Lt. Chang/The Angel of Vengeance.Refn remains visually stylish thoughout with natural location shoot, he adds enough subtle narrative smarts and horrifying underworld characters to ground its beautifully filmed depravity.The film's characters are non-people; reminiscent of Revolver (2005) the things they say to each other are non-conversations, the events of neon-drenched nightmare are like some piece of French cinema which purposely plays differently to mainstream good taste. It's slow, edgy and gripping as the extreme violence basic plot plays out.Only God Forgives has some quirky casting and interesting visuals on the background of the seediest sides of Bangkok. If you like artsy, its dedicated to director Alejandro Jodorowsky which should give you an idea what to expect then this is for you.