MASTER GARDENER, US, 2023. Starring Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver, Quintessa Swindell and Esai Morales. Directed by Paul Schrader. 111 minutes. Rated M (Mature themes, sex scenes and coarse language).
A reassurance for those who feel set up by the title of the film: there are many beguilingly beautiful close-ups of flowers during the opening credits, wonderful vistas of flowers, geometric French gardens, natural British gardens, wild gardens. However, after this initial reassurance we see fewer and fewer flowers, rather more human thorns. While this is a drama about an expert gardener, and thought there are many explanations of seeds, growth, flowers, it is more a drama about human nature.
And a message, that whatever the destruction, natural or with malicious human motivation, rejuvenated regrowth is always possible.
Schrader has been writing strong, often grim movies (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Last Temptation) for almost 50 years as well as directing many films that cover a wide range of themes, more recently on significant male loners (First Reformed, The Card Counter). With his name, we can expect serious themes, sadness and violence.
This is a drama about Narvel Roth (Edgerton), a sombre master gardener in the spacious grounds of a Louisiana mansion, presided over by a bitterly rich dowager owner, Norma Haverhill, played imperiously and often impetuously by Weaver. Haverhill has had a long family tradition with the gardens, a local reputation, and has her gardener obedient to her beck and call. He is a arespectful loner, with a mysterious background that gradually reveals a far different life and ideology.
Into the mix comes Norma’s grandniece, Maya (Swindell). Norma agrees to take her in as an apprentice to Narvel but she has nothing but disdain for Maya’s mother and keeps her distance.
The drama intensifies with Maya and her increasingly bitter grand aunt. Narvel is fascinated with Maya and circumstances lead him to make his own moral decisions. Apart from the beauty of the flowers, this is a rather sombre drama, becoming ever more sombre as the flowers disappear.
Transmission
Released 7 December