Unforgiven

A NYONE who thought Ryan Gosling's last movie The Place Beyond The Pines was long and boring should probably give Only God Forgives a miss. Despite clocking in at an apparently taut 90 minutes, director Nicolas Winding Refn includes about three times as many long lingering close-ups of star Ryan Gosling as he managed to pack into the pair's previous collaboration, Drive - and about half as much dialogue. Although it's beautifully shot and lit and based around a simple, hard-boiled plot of the sort that's underpinned countless westerns and B-pictures, Only God Forgives moves at a deliberate snail's pace. Refn's latest film simmers with a lazy surrealism that's almost Lynchian, tormenting unsuspecting viewers with a fluidity between fantasy and reality. The film occasionally shifts perspective without warning between what's actually happening and whatever a character wished would happen, or can't help fantasising about happening. Actors are also observed doing nothing, saying nothing, just being - there. As mentioned, a good deal of Only God Forgives is devoted to simply beholding the face of Ryan Gosling as he does and says absolutely nothing, a fetishistic style that can only be described as 'Gosporn'. In a way, such cinematic immobility serves to heighten the impact of the film's extreme violence, which sees limbs impaled and hacked off, eyeballs sliced, skulls pulped and bellies slit open. For all its artsiness, this is a revenge flick, see. Someone gets killed, someone else gets killed in retaliation and, before you know it, everyone is trying to kill everyone. Gosling plays Julian, an American living in Bangkok who ostensibly works as a boxing promoter on the seedier side of town. His brother/partner, Billy (Tom Burke) is a nasty piece of work, something which quickly becomes clear when he brutally murders a young prostitute. Enter Lieutenant Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm), a sword-wielding cop with a fondness for karaoke who dispenses justice for Billy's crime in a manner that the police ombudsman will probably have some questions about. Before long, Billy and Julian's terrifying mother Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas) arrives in the city and starts making increasingly violent demands of her youngest son, with whom it is strongly implied that she has enjoyed an incestuous relationship. As the bullets fly, the swords swing and the mutilated corpses mount up, it becomes clear that there will only be one player left standing (possibly limping) by the time events have played out. It would be wrong to reveal whether she survives - but Kristin Scott Thomas easily steals the entire picture with one of the most memorable against-type performances of recent years. As for Gosling, anyone who just enjoys looking at him will be in their element - the jury is still out on whether he's all that hot in the acting stakes. Only God Forgives is great if you're in the mood for a wilfully weird, extremely violent and beautifully composed evening at the movies. In fact, you can add an extra star to the rating. However, those hungry for straight-up crime-thriller entertainment will likely be left dazed and confused by Nicolas Winding Refn's latest. RATING: ?