"Wanna fight?" - Only God Forgives Review

Anastasia Takis loves Ryan Gosling and was lucky enough to go to a preview of his latest film, Only God Forgives. Read on for her review.

Only God forgives…. As much as I love Ryan Gosling, not even my undying love for him could make me like this film the way I had wanted to.

The trailers minimal dialogue, mesmerising soundtrack and intriguing relationships put this film in one of the top three for me to see this year.

The film itself however didn’t move much beyond the trailer and if I was to be brutally honest,  I would have to admit that I enjoyed the trailer more than I did the actual film.

The ultraviolent, anti-revenge movie has had mixed reviews and I can understand why.

On one hand the film is stunning, with fantastic lingering shots of a dirty, aggressive and uncompromising Bangkok.

The performances from all characters is, at times, rather poetic; Goslings lingering shots for the most part of the film exude a tortured, sexy soul (every girls dream). Kristen Scott Thomas is unrecognisable as Crystal, a widowed mob matriarch who is, in one instance, graceful, demanding, destructive and resentful of her youngest son. But perhaps the most terrific performance came from Vithaya Pansringarm who plays Chang, Bangkok’s number one law enforcer and a character who effortlessly glides through the streets of Bangkok with a terrifying sense of calm whilst enforcing his own kind of justice on his home turf.

Violence is a major element of the film as Gosling battles with his brother’s death and attempts to avenge it, whilst Pansringarm continues to rid his city of bad guys in Zen-avenger fashion.

The Karaoke moments, of which we see a hint of in the trailer, were some of my favourite moments of the film. This is a chance for us to see Pansringarm taking to the stage to sing impassively of heartache whilst his fellow officers watch on in a state of respectful alert. The scenes offer, on one hand a light relief to the violence, whilst always exuding their own sense of terror.

Where I felt this film let itself down was in the dialogue, of which there is none. If the script had been stronger this film could have been a powerful look into a dark world full of a dedicated avenger, determined to rid his city of the sort of terror and torment it had become accustomed to, messed up brothers making some sort of lives for themselves in this dangerous city and a mother who is as vile as she is stunning.

Instead, the lack of dialogue meant I walked out of the cinema wanting to like the film, pleading with my brain to understand its meaning.

My advice, in case Nicolas Winding Refn was ever interested, would be to work with short stories or script writers like he did with Drive, a film which mixed intriguing characters and fantastic story with a spellbinding soundtrack and stunning shots, and in turn, created one of the most intriguing and enthralling art-house films I have seen in years.

Those expecting to see Drive 2.0 will be left bemused and perhaps disappointed by director Refn’s latest outing. This film has its roots firmly entrenched in his earlier works, Valhalla Rising notably. He is up there with the great cinematographer Roger Deakins at times with his stunning camera work and eye for a fantastic shot and while they say a picture is worth a thousand words Refn asks an awful lot of his audience for a film far less gratifying than the stand-out Drive.