Sadly,
Only God Forgives will have to go down as one of the biggest disappointments in the history of Cannes, simply because of the weight of expectation heaped on it by the success of Nicholas Winding Refn's exceptional Drive, and the astronomical trajectory of star Ryan Gosling's career at the minute. Some critics loved it, raving about its style and Refn's bravery in making such a consciously provocative film, but those are only two of the reasons I flat out hated it. I had no agenda going in to love or hate the film: while I was a pretty major fan of Drive, I wasn't particularly enamoured by Refn's earlier works, and even thought Drive stepped ever so slightly too close to the line of self-congratulation and empty mythologising, so I was open to enlightenment. I do admit I rode the hype train hard for a while there, thanks to a cool trailer, the talent put together (including the returning doyen of soundtracks Cliff Martinez) and the synopsis teasing a super-stylish vengeance flick, but the final product is easily one of the most self-indulgent works of art I've ever seen, and the agenda to provoke, rather than entertain is precisely the reason I steer clear of directors like Terrence Malick and Tarsem Singh. Anyway, the film is likely to split film-watchers into two camps - the kind who like to be entertained, and the other kind, and if my suspicions are correct, the reasons you'll fall into the former category are probably as follows...