Every time I watch DRIVE I find something new to love. But the one constant that has remained for me throughout every viewing is how well star Ryan Gosling and director Nicolas Winding Refn seemed to click. Their chemistry led to a certain special kind of synergy, a particular brand of cohesion, which infused the project all the way through and was one of the more significant factors in elevating DRIVE to another level of filmmaking and storytelling.
So it’s a good thing they’re working together, even if it’s for only one more motion picture. And ONLY GOD FORGIVES, a film for which we have the plot but barely any idea what it’s actually about per se, is that film. Set in Bangkok and full of Refn’s very particular brand of brutality, even the lo-res version of its visuals seen below is striking. And considering that the film is, according to The Hollywood Reporter, set to release on May 23rd (right around its rumored Cannes premiere), I would imagine we’ll be seeing plenty of hi-res stills and video sooner rather than later.
Hopefully, anyway. For the sake and sanity of the film’s fans, and more specifically their expectations that are surely skyrocketing into an almost unmatchable place. The line between overhype and excited expectation is a dangerous one, but I have confidence that ONLY GOD FORGIVES will stay the course. But what about you?
Plot recap: Julian (Gosling) lives in exile in Bangkok where he runs a Thai boxing club as a front for the family’s drugs smuggling operation. When Julian’s brother Billy is killed their mother, Jenna (Kristen Scott Thomas), arrives in the city. She wants revenge and forces Julian to find the killer. Julian’s contacts in the criminal underworld lead him directly to The Angel of Vengeance, a retired police officer who knows everything and who is both Judge and Punisher. Jenna demands that Julian kill The Angel of Vengeance, an act that will cost him dearly.