REVIEW - ONLY GOD FORGIVES

In Only God Forgives, Nicolas Winding Refn aspires to a degree of artistic purity that few other directors would dare reach for. Be it the ruggedness of Valhalla Rising or the breathlessness of Pusher II, he strips his filmmaking bare, exerting utter control over every element in this short, thin, literally impressive film. Nothing is for show, as everything is the show: Larry Smith's neon lighting expresses nothing, accentuates nothing, it exists to exist. Ryan Gosling's performance imparts nothing, represents nothing, it exists to exist. A minimalist catalogue of devices in Winding Refn's cinematic arsenal, unembellished, untainted, undisturbed. Two crucial elements of this film betray his directorial skill, and undo much of the fine work he accomplishes. One is the story. There is one, as slight as it is, and each time Winding Refn manoeuvres to keep it ticking forward, he breaks the spell, and the emotional hollowness of Only God Forgives spills out. The other is the regrettable fact that he's slumming it here. He's being lazy. This kind of stylistic brilliance is like breathing to Nicolas, and he'd have managed it just as skilfully had he piled his plate higher with items of actual substance. That's not just an observation made on the basis of having seen his other work - that's discernible from the material herein even for a Winding Refn virgin. He's capable of squeezing every last drop of worth out of shameless pulp, and yet for these 90 minutes he seems content to let this pulp do its own work. He's neglectful. A dazzling soundscape is employed to better effect than any of NWR's other tricks, although objectively, the technical package is of outstanding quality. So it's an extremely arresting, soulless work of art. But it falls short of the artistic purity that was the initial goal.