To err is human...
The story for this movie is a bit hard to nail down, but I think (for the most part) I got it. Julian (Ryan Gosling) is a drug smuggler living on the hard streets of Bangkok. His brother lives with him and helps his business. One day his brother decides that he wants to "have sex with" (murder) a young girl (around the age of 14, preferably), he hunts down different brothels until he gets what he is after. After he is done killing the girl, the police chief finds him at the murder scene, and convinces the father of the girl that was killed (that sold her body or "pimped" her to this man) to take his vengeance on him. With the brother of Julian now dead Julian's mother comes to Bangkok to bury him, and convince Julian to take vengeance for his kin. I can't really go into too much more on the story line because I would start reaching spoiler territory.
This is not a movie for everyone and I guess I am just one of those people. This is a poster child for the type of movie that everyone either loves or hates, with no middle ground. It is a weird film. Just straight up strange. You can't quite pin down the plot until you are about halfway through the movie, and even then the writer isn't really that helpful with guiding you through the movie. I am not necessarily saying that it is a movie writer's job to pander to the lowest common viewer, but they should at least pander to someone. This movie is all about creative expression. "I felt like making this movie for me, and damn the audience if they do not see my vision." Which I can respect, but it doesn't mean I have to like the overall result of someone painting their soul onto a movie reel. I don't really have any problem with the overall story line, just the way in which it was delivered. The story line is pretty straight forward and interesting. American man and his brother escape a life of being wanted fugitives in America to make a life of crime in Bangkok. One brother dies, and probably deserved the death that he got. The other brother sees that his sibling probably deserved what he got, but is coerced into taking revenge by his mother. A nice little script, but the delivery is just weird and a little insulting.
The acting in this movie is another big issue for me. I can see that Ryan Gosling is basically the male equivalent to Jessica Alba (nice to look at, but the acting career path may not be perfectly suited for them), so it kind of irritates me when he tries to play these artistic roles. Whenever he plays a role he seems determined to only play it as a smoldering, silent, true neutral character (sans "Crazy, Stupid, Love"). To be fair, he didn't exactly get a great deal of help from his supporting cast. Almost everyone in this movie either seemed just as confused by he script as the audience did, or just didn't care about how the movie turned out, and was only there for a paycheck. The only good part of the acting experience that I could gather was the performance by Vithaya Pansringarm as Chang (the police chief or detective thing). He seemed like he was generally having fun with his role, and sold me on the fact that he might actually carry a sword around with him, dispersing justice like an Asian cowboy.
On a more positive note, this movie is absolutely gorgeous at times. The scenes ranging from neon lit brothels, to the gritty, dirty streets really seem to pop off the screen and embrace the audience. I can't really say that everything in the movie was absolutely gorgeous, though. Some of the shots were sloppy, and the make up done on Gosling after he gets his face beaten to a pulp was like someone picked a third grader with some paint off the street, then put him to work on a movie set.
Final Verdict: Netflix it Coincidentally this movie is on Netflix right now. It wasn't the most horrible attempt at creative expression I had ever seen and if you are into cinematography I'm sure you can see the appeal of this movie.
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