The thought of a sleazy, Bangkok-set thriller starring the likes of Ryan Gosling and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, who helmed 2011's Drive, was enough to get the mouths of cinephiles everywhere watering the moment it was announced, and yet the final product failed to live up to expectations: unlike Drive, which managed to be cold and clinical whilst still clinging to an emotional core, Only God Forgives plays out like a parody of that much better movie. It's almost as if Winding Refn has served up the most extreme version of Drive as a punishment. Gosling didn't say much in Drive, but there was still a sense of character to be had in his nameless stuntman. Here, as drug dealer Julian (who attempts to track down his brother's murderer against a neon-clad Bangkok), Gosling brings his "broody, silent protagonist" type to the edges of exhaustion. Going by the little expression he puts into his performance, this must have been the easiest acting job ever. Parts of Only God Forgive are interesting, and there is an infectious, dream-like quality to it, but as an actual movie it doesn't really come together.
