Movie Review: Master Gardener

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B+

An excellent and very engaging film. 

This review will not go into much detail because this is one of those films where it works best if you go into blind. I knew little about this movie outside of who directed it and who starred in it. When one scene happened fairly early on in this picture, I was shocked. I was also hooked and felt the need to know where this movie would be going next. Though this is a slow-moving movie with not much action, I still found myself on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next. As the story unfolds this film takes you to some very dark places, often addressing the worst parts of humanity. This is a movie that is completely willing to make you feel uncomfortable. There are times when this can even be hard to watch. Yet we become too engrossed in the story to ever fully look away. What is really impressive about this movie is that as dark as it gets there is actually a tinge of hope and optimism behind much of it. This impressively never feels forced or like it is going against the grain of the story, instead it feels like something that is completely earned. Director and writer Paul Schrader (who made a name for himself writing the screenplay for Martin Scorsese's brilliant Taxi Driver (1976)), does a wonderful job of balancing this darkness with a bit of hope and always making it believable. This is also heavily helped by wonderful performances from a truly great cast that includes Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver, and Quintessa Swindell. All of whom give their full hearts to their performances here and bring a humanity to even the darkest parts of their characters. 

This movie does have its faults though. The narration comes off as unnecessary adding little to the overall effect of the film. Much of it can also sound a little too pretentious. There are also some boring side characters and interesting plot threads that can too often fall into the background or have disappointing conclusions. 

This is a movie that will definitely give you quite a bit of food for thought after watching it.