Яeverse Review from a Different Dimension: Only God Forgives

From the minds of what was easily 2011's only saving grace in the motion picture department; comes Only God Forgives. A film being undeservedly ushered out of our cinemas in order to make room for Hollywood's ever growing roster of disappointments; such as Grown Ups 2 (it has a 2 in the title so we should all know better). Films being released today which so much as resemble something with an artistic merit, are spending about as much time on the screens as a traveler in a south London comprehensive. As unjust as that fact may be; it simply means you'll have to invest in either a DVD/Bluray/iTunes purchase in order to watch it, and watch it you should.



The premise follows Julian (Ryan Gosling) a former priest turned undercover cop, as he assumes the facade of Lucifer an immaculately tidy drug dealer staining the streets of Bangkok with prostitutes and dead bodies; all in the name of catching the big fish. The morality of his cause begins to plague his conscience and Julian begins to blur the line between priest and drug dealer. The whole charade takes a turn for the worse when top cop and obsessive compulsive hoarder Jesus Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm) begins investigating our hero. The two despite being opposite ends of the same coin, quickly realize they are playing for the same team and buddy up in order to bring Bangkok's kingpins of crime to justice.

The plot is one which as graced us many times before but hasn't been done right since the early 90's; before the turn of the new millennium which brought along with it all the CGI atrocities that Hollywood execs could muster. But for some reason Only God Forgives is exempt from the usual symptoms of films today; no doubt one of the perks of having a Danish director. The explosions are real and the stunts are painful, this films presents the kind of buddy cop action that would have the likes of Axle Foley and Billy Rosewood hold a glass in solidarity.

Performance wise the cast display the emotive range and gravity you wouldn't except from a silver screen, but rather the sort of lyrical and physical fires that should be housed at the National itself. Gosling's turn as a manic priest one moment to a ballistic coke snorting hell-raiser the next was worth the price of admission alone;  the delivery of one line still haunts me. Chang and Julian are bickering over on one another's approach to interrogating a suspect; your classic good cop/bad cop debate; the whole scene plays out like a clown running across a mine field. The humor is pure menace; the crescendo peaks at Gosling's roar of the line "I didn't fucking cum in your mouth." typically such a vulgar line wouldn't reach me; but when it does it's a true testament to the auteur and his accomplices.

As much as I've been praising it thus far, the film isn't without flaws. Watching it I couldn't help but anticipate one of the climax's big surprises; which was the death of Jesus Chang a character who was no less than five days away from retirement. Also what I could have done without was the cameo by Olympic level anti-Semite Mel Gibson (puzzling how he still manages to find work in a town run by the Jews); who in an ironic turn plays God in the piece; the whole joke (if it even is one) is a little too Scary Movie for my taste. Never the less if you're watching this in the manor I assume you are, you should be able to switch off five minutes before the end; keeping the integrity of the film how you choose.

All in all this film is a culmination of the finest creatives all in euphoric harmony; true artisans of their field setting fire to tears.

Review by Eggbert House