Direction: Paul Schrader
Country: USA
In recent years, American filmmaker Paul Schrader has been dedicated to portraying lonely men paying for sins of the past, who are ironically presented with a chance of forgiveness and redemption. It happened with the nearly masterpiece First Reformed (2017) and the just tolerable The Card Counter (2021). Fitting seamlessly into this group, Master Gardener is the weakest of the three as it goes from a promisingly obscure opening to a decrease of solutions that turn it uninteresting and clumsy.
Joel Edgerton is Narvel Roth, an accomplished gardener with a violent past of racial hate and crime. He was "rescued" by and works for the wealthy Mrs. Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver), with whom he maintains a casual affair. When the latter asks him to take her estranged, mixed-blood 20-year-old grandniece, Maya (Quintessa Swindell), as an apprentice, Narvel’s peaceful life changes drastically. Their age gap is not an obstacle for them to falling in love, and that comes with a price.
Despite the authentic rotgut flavor, the film has a one-take feel about it, being buried in a clunky framework that, not dancing with originality, rarely cracked me up. The frustrating Master Gardener brings a message of inclusivity and redemption but forgets the thrills, never going far beyond the basic set-up. To add fuel to the fire, the acting couldn’t be more stiff and the gardening descriptions, with all their obvious allegories, more tedious. The silly conclusion only confirms the miswriting of Schrader, whom we definitely prefer cynical and bolder. Better luck next time!
