Only God Forgives is another highly-stylized film from director Nicholas Winding Refn that stars Ryan Gosling as the lead. Gosling’s character pretty much picks up where he left off in Drive, playing an emotionless badass with few words, trading hobbies of driving for boxing. Due to the sensory obsessed visuals in the film, Only God Forgives is admiringly intoxicating. However, what the film excels at with its display, it lacks in with its narrative.

The story begins when Julian (Ryan Gosling) finds out that his brother Billy (Tom Burke), who co-operates the Thai boxing club and drug trafficking business they run, is murdered for raping and killing a young Thai prostitute. A reoccurring theme in Only God Forgives is that all deaths are violent and brutal, and Billy’s death is no exception. Police Chief Chang’s (Vithaya Pansringarm) idea of justice is to lock Billy in a room with the deceased’s father for him to retaliate on Billy by beating him to death. The result of this sets Julian in action to hunt down Chang to seek revenge; if you can call it that since Billy arguably got what he deserved.

Refn wants to make sure the audience knows that its characters are not only dangerous, but also highly unpredictable. One of the ways he achieves this is by having Chang turn the table on the father that he just helped. He blames the death of the daughter partly on him for knowing and allowing her to be a prostitute. And just like that, Chang chops off the father’s arm.

I cannot help but wonder if a little more action and a little less violence would have made for a more satisfying watch. Refn constantly reminds the audience that these characters are both ruthless and unpredictable, but continues to do so long after it is well-established. For example, we must watch Chang ever so slowly disfigure a man, one appendage at a time. And it may sound like I am against the violence found in the film, which I am not. I just think it is forcefully overstated here.

One of the first things you will likely notice is the red filter that is backlit on many scenes, especially early on, as if to foreshadow the blood bath that is about to occur. Matching the stunning visuals is the hypnotic score that fits perfectly; something that Refn tends to do very well. He wisely brings back Cliff Martinez from Drive to compose the unsettling score.

Only God Forgives is methodically paced, save for sudden outbursts of ruthless violence from time to time. The film resembles a jack-in-the-box as most of the time you know what is going to happen, just not when it is going to happen. The ending feels abrupt and rushed, which is actually a bit bizarre as Gosling moves so turtle like that you mistake many of his scenes to be in slow motion. The weak ending might be because it used its great showdown between characters in the middle of the film, which feels out of place and leaves for a rather anticlimactic ending. Though some broad elements from Drive are present in Only God Forgives, fans of one will by no means guarantees that you will be a fan of the other.

Lasse Hallström’s Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is about having faith even if you do not believe in it. That in itself are wise words to live by; but as this film shows, it does not hurt to have someone wealthy funding the whole thing when you take that so called “leap of faith”. The film suffers from many of the pitfalls that romantic comedies typically suffer from, a predictable and generic plot put together by contrived situations and outcomes.

Harriet (Emily Blunt) represents a wealthy sheik, Sheikh Muhammed (Amr Waked), who wants to introduce salmon fishing into the waters in the Yemen. To fulfill this request of his Harriet contacts a fish expert who works for the British government named Dr. Alfred Jones (Evan McGregor). When the two meet up to discuss this idea Alfred instantly shoots the idea down saying that the climate is not ideal for the fish to live in.

Upon returning from the meeting, Alfred informs his boss just how ridiculous this project is. But inconveniently his boss gives him a choice of either being a part of this project or getting fired. Alfred is upset about the circumstance even when he finds out that they will be paying him double the salary if he takes on the project. He of course agrees to work on the project. The whole scene feels completely setup and artificial.

Alfred is so off-put by this project that he does not even stop for a second to consider this challenge at all. You would think that an avid fisherman such as himself would welcome this challenge to be a part of a once in a life time opportunity. I realize that the point of this is for later on when the project succeeds that it makes a point of “anything is possible” but his character is over-dramatic and annoying.

In one scene, there was a good metaphor showing Alfred going the opposite way in a crowd. This of course represents how salmon swim upstream and against the current of the water. It was to symbolize that he has changed his opinion and attitude on the project.

Just as the two finally being making some strides on the project Harriet receives a phone call that the guy she met just 3 weeks ago is missing in action from the army. As viewers we have to pretend to care about this man who she claims as her boyfriend even though they hardly knew each other. As she is tearing up she even admits to not remembering what his face looked like. The film made a point to bring up that she does not date often but she takes a whole week off of work which is a third of the time she knew the guy.

Everything seems to just fall conveniently into place in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. Alfred and Harriet become single again at the same time, so it is easy to guess what will come of that. There always seems to be a solution to all the problems that do arise along the way making the conflicts seem little minor speed bumps.

There is one scene that in particular that can be best described as down-right laughable. The only problem is that it was not supposed to be comical. As Alfred and Muhammed are fishing a man with a gun aims to kill the sheik but Alfred notices just in time to cast his line out and hook him in the neck.

If you are in the mood for a mindless romantic comedy with a feel-good story, you could do worse than Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, but you could also do much better. The biggest problem with the film is how predictable it is. You can see what is coming next from a mile away. The film is not as bad as it is just plain vanilla textbook storytelling. There is nothing that makes it stand out.

Pawel Pawlikowski returns after an eight-year hiatus with The Woman in the Fifth, a thriller that moves at a snail-like pace despite its 80 minute runtime. While it’s two strong lead performances help anchor the film, the storyline ranges from being dull to downright baffling.

Tom (Ethan Hawke), an American writer/professor, arrives in Paris to meet up with his wife and daughter. The meeting doesn’t go as well as he’d planned when it’s revealed that his wife has a restraining order against him, implying some sort of abusive relationship between Tom’s wife and/or daughter. After getting his suitcase stolen, Tom talks his way into staying at a cheap apartment while the shady landlord (Samir Guesmi) offers him work as a doorman for some sort of illegal operation that Tom doesn’t know about (the first time he tries to find out he’s immediately given a death threat).

At the same time Tom starts up a romantic relationship with Margit (Kristin Scott Thomas) and a Polish girl (Joanna Kulig) who works at the café below his apartment. The first hour or so of the film is mostly spent on Hawke finding ways to reconnect with his daughter while working on a massive letter he intends to give her. It takes a long time before some of the more familiar genre elements begin to show up which makes The Woman in the Fifth feel more like watching the weird misadventures of an American in Paris.

That type of film could have worked if any of it was actually interesting. Hawke, who speaks poor French for the majority of the movie, does a good job of making Tom a sympathetic character while showing him as a person seriously damaged by something (several scenes allude to past stints in jail or being under psychiatric care but nothing is ever explained) but there isn’t anything particularly gripping about his journeys across Paris.

It’s only when Margit comes into the picture that things begin to pick up mostly due to Kristin Scott Thomas’ terrific performance. Her meetings with Hawke are the most exciting scenes in the movie, making the subplots involving the landlord and café worker feel like a slog to get through in comparison.

Things eventually take a darker turn towards the end when certain revelations start to come out involving Tom but these scenes, which are reminiscent of Polanski thrillers like Frantic, feel out of place after the methodically paced first hour. The genre elements soon take over everything else, leading to a finale involving a bizarre fade-to-white that doesn’t earn its placement.

The Woman in the Fifth could have worked better if everything didn’t feel so inert. The first half feels more like it’s treading water than giving any insight towards its main character, and the twisty conclusion is more of a head-scratcher than a satisfying payoff. See it for Hawke and Thomas’ good performances if you must, but other than that there isn’t too much to offer.