Preview Of Only God Forgives ft. Ryan Gosling

Ben Scothern previews Ryan Gosling’s upcoming feature ‘Only God Forgives’, and to be honest if I was his girlfriend I’d be concerned about what is an unmistakeable man crush.

Imagine, just imagine for one second, what it’s like to be Ryan Gosling. I bet you can’t. I can’t. Imagine being able to go up to a woman and say “you are just the most abhorrent thing I’ve ever seen” and have them react like you’ve just asked them to marry you. Imagine being in films where you hardly have to say anything, just wear an awesome jacket and just stare. He does that.

Ryan Gosling. King of the Stare. He of the Face. Lord of all Men. He’s teamed up with his mate Nicolas Winding Refn (I’ve really resisted the urge to put an extra vowel in ‘Refn’) for another film that, even if it turns out to be shit, looks really, really cool. The film is called ‘Only God Forgives’ and it also star- oh who cares who else is in it? Ryan’s in it. He plays Julian, a drug-smuggler in Bangkok, who sets out to find and kill the swine responsible for the murder of his brother.The film, as I’ve already mentioned, displays the Winding-Refn trademark of just looking beautiful. Colours and lighting are used to stunning effect, and you can bet the music is just as good. Seriously. Bet me. Whatever you like, I’ll match it. I won’t lose. I never do. The trailer is classic Refn: unflinching bloodlust, offset with glorious lighting and a soundtrack that despite seemingly being inappropriate, ends up being exactly the opposite. From it we can denote the three main characters and their (quite obvious) roles. Kristin Scott-Thomas as the siren that will no doubt get in the way at some point, and a stabby man with a massive sword who I reckon isn’t very popular with Ryan.

The thing is with this film is, I worry that it may flatter to deceive. There’s no denying how aesthetically and aurally (AURALLY, you animals) pleasing it is, and it does look, for lack of a better word, properly cool. What I liked about Drive (the other Refn/Gosling collaboration) was that it was different, and although it featured 86% Gosling facial expressions and 14% actual talking, it was enjoyable because it was so refreshing. I’d like for there to be a bit more, well, speech in this film, because there is a finite amount of pensive staring I can take before it gets tiresome. No doubt this film will be satisfy the eyes and ears, but will it actually be any good? I hope so. The film is out on the 19th of July in the USA, with release dates for other countries to be confirmed.

here’s the link to the trailer