Só Deus Perdoa

Se Drive: Risco Duplo não tivesse o sucesso, Gosling e Scott Thomas não teriam optado por isso. Tão pouco cativante para os espetadores que é pouco provável que tenha um grande lançamento nos cinemas dos EUA. Uma família que não é exatamente o modelo ideal americana, que opera em Banguecoque, irrita o chefe da polícia local com uma maldita catana afiada. Aprendemos quem tem que tipo de relação complicada com quem apenas em pistas, continuamente, à medida que os corpos são massacrados. São todos malucos que ou gostam de violar crianças de catorze anos, ou traficar drogas, ou vazar os olhos. A omnipresente escuridão, lanternas ou luzes de néon cuidadosamente compostas na imagem, símbolos de dragão em meia luz vermelha, figuras em movimento lento, música escura ou psicadélica, e Ryan Gosling a olhar tanto em frente como nunca antes. O enredo do filme brinca com as expectativas do espetador, confunde-o, hipnotiza-o, assusta-o por vezes, fascina-o noutras, mas não proporciona a satisfação final. O polícia de Pansringarm, um sádico brilhantemente demoníaco, a mãe de Kristin Scott Thomas, uma bruxa devidamente sem escrúpulos. Um filme estranho, sobre o qual refletirá, mas não encontrará nada. (30/05/2013)

OK, when it’s Refn, I absolutely don't mind and have never minded superficiality. Not even being a poser. I always felt something more behind it - vibration, a unique vision, the ability to captivate through image. Only God Forgives is the first time that ostentatious self-affection and the importance attached to every (albeit non-plot) shot has severely bothered me. The entire film is actually the anti-thesis of Drive, an image of a passive, incompetent, insufficient, castrated protagonist, on whose side are neither justice nor sympathy. Unfortunately, Gosling's pleading gaze into the camera seems sometimes tragicomic, similar to the didactic repetition of castration motifs and the emphasis on the archetypality of the plot (sometimes horribly didactic). The plot element is as truncated and frustrating as the protagonist - it's certainly not a fail - it's an intention, a rather mischievous creative intention, which Refn ostentatiously presents to us. Disconnection, inconsistency, extraordinariness - what made sense to me in Valhalla Rising as a lyrical poem resonates in Only God Forgives as an empty and pompous mannerism, gratification of the armless, sometimes even rebellious and strenuously aggressive. Mechanical declamations, the absence of logic, a bizarrely interconnected world in which the only possible order rules - the order of the director's ego. For me, a completely empty pose, empty enough to frustrate me. A few scenes are, of course, masterful (the fight, the chase through the city, ending with a recipe for a funny wok pan), but the enchantment of the whole faded. Nicolas Winding Refn reduced to excess. (30/05/2013)

Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling were apparently surprised by how successful Drive was with the general public. That’s what gave them the courage to work with even heavier themes than Drive had. They say that there is power in simplicity, and this is exactly what Drive was. A dynamic camera, an oppressive atmosphere supported by great music and, in essence, a very simple premise. Only God Forgives has all these elements, but it is still quite brutal, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Asian movies with mafia characters in the lead are simply like that. But to top it all off, they talk even less and everything takes a really long time, which was perhaps the biggest issue the movie had. It would have been dynamic otherwise. Some of the intentionally long and meaningless shots have a message for a split second, but all the atmosphere disappears within a single moment because nothing really happens in the movie. The electronic music is also sparse, and all that initial enthusiasm quickly fades away in less than half an hour. One then looks at Ryan, who thinks that his charisma will do all the work, but he apparently does not understand that if he doesn’t speak, the viewer can’t form an opinion about him. Even so, I respect the creators’ efforts. The movie’s completely different from a classic film production and deserves great respect. Drive was the work and success of the moment. But Only God Forgives is its indistinct shadow. (01/11/2013)

A pseudo-art game with symbols, vague characters, and a story about revenge and (lack of) forgiveness, in which fantastic cinematography and the unintentional ridiculousness of Gosling's vacant stare reign supreme. Overall, it’s enough for the biggest movie pose and epic fail of the year because I haven't seen a movie in a long time that shows so much of what it wants to be and works exactly the opposite way; I want to read a long analysis of it by a film theorist. (21/09/2013)

An empty hypnoneon nothing that paradoxically has it all; redruM, a shitload of material for Gosling’s breakfast, Oedipus complex², Jodorowsky, a return to mother’s womb, Martinez, Thai folk song karaoke, some explicit violence etc. (05/06/2013)