Schrader keeps it low-key in this slow-burn drama about a convict-turned-gardener who takes on a young woman caught in bad company as an apprentice.
Review #2,639
Dir. Paul Schrader
2022 | USA | Drama, Thriller | 107 min | 2.39:1 | English
M18 (edited) for language, brief sexual content and nudity
Cast: Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver, Quintessa Swindell
Plot: Narvel Roth is a meticulous horticulturist who is devoted to tending the grounds of a beautiful estate and pandering to his employer, the wealthy dowager Mrs. Haverhill. When she demands that he take on her wayward and troubled great-niece, it unlocks dark secrets from a buried violent past.
Awards: Official Selection (Venice)
International Sales: HanWay Films
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Moderate – Dark Past; Unlikely Connection
Narrative Style: Straightforward
Pace: Slightly Slow
Audience Type: Slightly Arthouse
Viewed: In Theatres – Shaw Lido
Spoilers: No
There is something enigmatic about Paul Schrader in his wise later years, whose works may be hit or miss. Even in the misses, there’s something valuable to take away from. First Reformed (2017) was outstanding, while The Card Counter (2021) was not bad.
Master Gardener, the most uneventful of the trio and a miss for some, completes his ‘Man in a Room’ trilogy with a sense of quiet acceptance, as he finds yet another way to deliver a thematic template that has long been synonymous with his style.
Well, cue man (in this case Joel Edgerton who plays Narvel, a veteran gardener) with a dark past (as an ex-convict and white supremacist) who keeps a diary of his intrusive if sometimes revelatory thoughts that Schrader turns into intra-diegetic narration.
He would meet a stranger (Maya, a young black woman caught in bad company whom Narvel takes under his wing), forming a relationship that may change his outlook on life or trigger his traumatic bodily memory.
“I would like you to take her on as an apprentice.”
Schrader keeps it low-key in Master Gardener and even in moments of heightened tension, the film doesn’t quite operate at a higher register.
The conspicuous use of what might be described as a 1980s-ish dreamy new age-y style of music does add considerably to its idyllic tone, not to mention the narration also heavily incorporates scientific info about plants.
One might mistake it for an educational piece about botany until Schrader weaves in the dark clouds of psychology—only he would link the smell of flowers with the thrill of pulling the trigger.
Do look out for probably the year’s most surreal depiction of sexual pleasure on film. These are all part of Schrader’s enigma that I mentioned earlier.
Grade: B
Trailer:
Music:
Eternality Tan 