Solo Dios perdona

Si no fuera por el éxito de Drive, Gosling y Scott Thomas no hubieran participado en ella. Es tan poco interesante para los espectadores, que difícilmente será proyectado en muchos cines de Estados Unidos. No exactamente una familia estadounidense modelo, que está en Bangkok, que enfada a un jefe de la policía local que tiene un machete bien afilado. De quién tiene relación con quién y cuál mala es, nos enteramos solo indirectamente, continuamente, con la adición de cuerpos masacrados. Son todos cabrones a los que les gusta violar a las niñas de catorce años, o vender drogas, o sacar los ojos. Oscuridad ubicua, farolillos o neones incorporados en la imagen, símbolos de dragones en la penumbra roja, figuras que se mueven lentamente, música oscura o psicodélica, y Ryan Gosling mirando a lo nada como nunca antes. La película juega con las expectativas del espectador, lo estira, lo hipnotiza, a veces lo asusta, a veces lo fascina, pero no le transmite la satisfacción final. Pansringarm interpreta brillantemente al demoníaco policía sádico y Kristin Scott Thomas a la madre perra realmente sin escrúpulos. Una película extraña sobre la que pensarás, pero que no se te ocurrirá nada. (30.05.2013)

A esos 49 por ciento no me sorprende en absoluto y tal vez sea mucho, ya que Solo Dios perdona ofrece una combinación de crudeza danesa con crueldad asiática en un experimento cinematográfico muy extraño. Casi me dan ganas de usar el "WTF" moderno de hoy en día. No entiendo en absoluto lo que Refn nos quería transmitir. La historia es clara como una bofetada, pero los constantes cortes, interludios y contrastes supuestamente artísticos sumergen aún más la película en lugar de destacarla. Los daneses tienen suficiente dinero para hacer películas, así que simplemente pueden permitirse hacerlas incluso desagradables y retorcidas sin género. (06.09.2015)

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)

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)