Title – Master Gardener (2022) 

Director – Paul Schrader (First Reformed) 

Cast – Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver, Quintessa Swindell, Esai Morales

Plot – Horticulturist Narvel Roth (Edgerton) tends to the grounds of his wealthy employer Norma Haverhill (Weaver) but his past life threatens to interrupt his quite existence. 

“The seeds of love grow like the seeds of hate”

Review by Eddie on 06/11/2023

For every film such as Taxi Driver or Raging Bull that he helped bring to life, there’s a Dying of the Light or The Canyons, making controversial writer/director Paul Schrader something of an enigma, with the undoubtedly talented voice also capable of delivering some truly awful misfires that defy typical critical lashings. 

Thankfully not as irredeemable as some of his worst offences, Schrader’s newest outing as both writer/director Master Gardener is a half-baked dramatic thriller that is going to struggle to find many willing to overlook its many flaws, including an at times unpolished script, a central mystery that promises far more than it in fact delivers and a pacing that is often akin to watching plants grow, making this potentially gripping exercise one that lacks anything of note to make it stand out of a crowded garden plot. 

Teaming up with the talented Joel Edgerton, here playing horticulturist with a colourful past Narvel Roth, there feels like there is a lot of early promise with where Gardener might go in the early stages, with intrigue building around what is Roth’s background and what is going on with his relationship with his employer, Sigourney Weaver getting to go a little crazy as the unhinged Norma Haverhill, but as Quintessa Swindell’s Maya comes on the scene and Gardener gets stuck in a rather bland flow of events, Schrader is unable to make his curious little indie into something worth talking about. 

A lot more dialled back and even hopeful than a majority of other Schrader films from the past, Gardener is likely to be a very different type of exercise than many have come to expect from the troubled filmmaker and while it’s nice to see the usually brutal filmmaker take a moment to ponder a different type of film to brand with his name, nothing much that happens through Roth or Maya’s journey feels overly earned or gripping, culminating in a rather bland final stretch that for most of the lead in appears to be headed towards a far more notable end game than what we get in its stead. 

You can’t fault the films leading man, with Edgerton once more showcasing a solid skill-set that has seen him become one of Australia’s most impressive acting exports, but there’s no escaping from the fact that Gardener feels like merely a seed of an idea, one that needed far more time in the dirt to grow and germinate rather than being bought out in the world prematurely unprepared to give audiences what they need or want from such an oddball slowburn. 

Final Say – 

Lacking the inspired lunacy that has given the best Schrader associated features their renowned standings, Master Gardener has the early signs of becoming something glorious to behold but as time wears on so does any hope the film had of breaking out of the doldrums on its way to becoming nothing more than a unrefined oddity.

2 gardening tools out of 5