Ryan Gosling's childlike Julian hunts for the man who killed his brother in Taiwan (why it's set in Taiwan and how poorly it utilizes its locale is only one of many baffling questions). The man who killed his brother did it after Julian's brother raped and murdered his daughter. He was pointed in the appropriate direction by a corrupt police captain (Vithaya Pansringarm) who likes using a katana as his weapon of choice (because: it looks cool, obviously). The cop serves as the film's villain, although there's not really "good" or "bad" guys; everyone is a little screwed up. This isn't even mentioning the twisted mother-son relationship between Julian and his mother Crystal (Kristen Scott Thomas) -- who pushes him forcefully to avenge his brother's death even as he's conflicted over it.
To match the film's heightened visuals are muted emotions. But a lot of this comes off as poorly conveyed motivations (The emotions are so understated that when emotions broil it's hard to comprehend why people are blowing up. It also leads to some awkward and terrible line readings). Refn likes tinkering with cool looking imagery but he can't really fathom good reasons to justify it.
Refn's previous effort, Drive, took a similar approach to storytelling, and also featured Gosling as the soft spoken, mysterious lead character. Drive, however, used its imagery as an outward expression of inner desires and feelings (it also had a much more straightforward and elegantly told premise). Here the imagery and the story it's in service of don't align and that leads to a lot of this feeling empty.
Grade: C-
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