‘Master Gardener’ Review: Paul Schrader Closes the Loop on his Tortured Men Trilogy with a Haunting Film
thewrap.comMaster Gardener.”Played by a brooding and elegantly sturdy Joel Edgerton, Narvel Roth seems suited for the job on the one hand, as he is the meticulous kind.
With a strikingly angular face, slim-fit overalls, not a hair out of place in his neatly parted cut and a name as peculiarly formal as its owner, you could almost sniff Narvel’s thoroughness in every plant and flora he tends to.
Then again, perhaps he is not all that suited for the post, either. A shady past as a former neo-Nazi and tough-guy-for-hire haunts Narvel, despite his current honorable occupation at the stately mansion, Gracewood Gardens.
How could he be expected to rip out the weeds of a garden when he still has his own demons to be weeded out and a guilty conscience to be healed?As obvious as it is “damaged human beings are like gardens in need” is the metaphor at the heart of Schrader’s latest, a soulful ending to the filmmaker’s unofficial trilogy that includes the intriguing “First Reformed” (2017) and frustratingly shallow “The Card Counter” (2021).
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