On the opening weekend of The 60th New York Film Festival, I attended the North American Premiere of the new thriller by Paul Schrader, “Master Gardener”.
Synopsis
When a wealthy dowager with an extensive garden orders her horticulturalist
to look after her grandniece, what impact will this have on everyone’s life,
both professionally and personally?
Story
Norma Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver) owns a huge Louisiana
mansion with an impressive garden that’s envied and admired by many in the area. She takes pride in its upkeep but in reality,
owes it all to her gardener Narvel Roth (Joel Edgerton) and his team of
apprentices. Narvel has worked for Norma
for many years – and has engaged in an affair with his employer for almost as
long. That’s their arrangement and both
seem quite comfortable with it, despite Norma’s naturally overbearing
nature. It seems that she considers
Narvel her property almost in the same way as she views her home or garden.
Narvel’s latest instructions are to work on the garden so
that Norma can win recognition of first prize while raising money for
charity. This is not new for him, but
now it comes with a catch – he has to hire Maya (Quintessa Swindell), Norma’s
grandniece, as one of his apprentices; he is to teach the finer points of
gardening to her so that she will develop something of a career. Although Norma was never very close to Maya,
she is doing it as a favor to her sister; Maya’s mother passed away and her
life went into a tailspin shortly thereafter, turning to drugs and dropping out
of school. Hopefully, this will turn
around the life of the 20-something.
Maya is not the only one with a regrettable past. Narvel, it turns out, spent time in prison;
in his former life, he was a White Supremacist who murdered several
people. After turning over evidence to
the authorities, he was given a lighter sentence and released early – he studied
horticulture in order to have a legitimate way of making money and start a new
life. As a result, he can understand
where Maya is coming from. Although Maya
turns into a good student, she loses her job -- Norma resents her presence when
she believes Maya’s developing an attraction to Narvel. But when Narvel learns that Maya’s former
drug dealer is now making life difficult for her, can he intercede to save her
life?
Review
“Master Gardener” is the quintessence of Paul Schrader’s
filmmaking; arguably the best he has ever done to date. Dark undertones that are gradually revealed
are perhaps the best part of Schrader’s storytelling ability. The screenplay
has well-drawn characters who are clearly imperfect and are not proud of their
past. In their own way, they are seeking
redemption; they realize that they cannot completely erase their past but they
do control how they can change their future.
Who the protagonist is/are may not necessarily be obvious at the outset,
but evolves through the course of the story.
There are some really great performances here, particularly by Weaver
and Edgerton.
If you are looking for likeable characters, then “Master
Gardener” may not be for you. True to
form, Schrader gives us an ominous story with characters of questionable moral
codes. Who among them are the least
objectionable? That’s where you find the
one for whom you root. The evolution of
how the characters interact with each other is also quite fascinating: the cool, aloof and imperious Norma has both
a professional and inappropriately personal relationship with Narvel – one which
she only feels comfortable having because of her power over him. Thus her outrage when he develops an intimacy
with someone else who lacks that kind of power.
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