Master Gardener

The next movie in my double feature at the Broadway last night was Master Gardner.  As a huge fan of First Reformed, I was very intrigued by Paul Schrader's latest exploration of redemption and, even though it pales in comparison to that movie, I appreciated a more optimistic resolution.  Narvel Roth (Joel Edgerton) is a man with a violent past who has left that life behind to become the head gardener at an extensive estate owned by Norma Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver).  He appreciates the rules and order that can be imposed upon a garden after living a life of chaos and records his thoughts in a daily journal.  However, his ordered life is thrown into chaos once again when Norma demands that he take her troubled grand-niece Maya (Quintessa Swindell) on as an apprentice but his need to protect her from the consequences of her past becomes a way for him to atone for his.  A lot of the dialogue in this is incredibly cringe-worthy (I even laughed out loud during a scene that was definitely not meant to be funny) and I wasn't as emotionally invested in the story as I was for the one told in First Reformed (perhaps because the themes are becoming repetitious).  However, all of the performances are compelling, especially Weaver's turn as the haughty and petty owner of the estate (I think it is her best in years).  Also, I was initially a bit disappointed that, apart from a beautiful stop-motion title sequence with blooming flowers, the gardens seem very drab and lifeless but a gorgeous sequence involving magical realism as Narvel and Maya drive through a forest of flowers highlights how empty his life has been without Maya (this is my interpretation).  Finally, I loved the metaphor about how planting a garden is an act of hope for the future because it left me feeling positive about the fate of these characters (which is rare in a film by Schrader).  I didn't love this as much as I was expecting to but it is thought-provoking enough for me to recommend it.