Master Gardener

Master Gardener is a dark and brooding film about escaping your past and finding peace in your life. Writer director Paul Schrader always makes interesting films and this one is no different, if not in his top tier. Narvel Roth is a meticulous horticulturist who works for a wealthy dowager, Norma Haverhill, on a large country estate. Roth is buttoned down and we discover he has a dark and disturbing past. We learn more of this through the film via a series of flashbacks. When Norma's niece comes to the estate to work under him it turns his safe world upside down. Soon they need to leave the estate and urgently sort their life out together. This is a meticulous film with a deliberate tone, if a little stiff and one note at times. It's dark and deliberate, although sometimes to a fault. Performances are fine, especially Joel Edgerton as the disturbed Roth. A low key film that intrigues if not totally satisfies.

I thought it was really good. Some people think it was an era from long ago, you are kidding yourself. Skin heads, proud boys, KKK or whatever they are calling themselves these days, they exist all over. I think this movie gives hope that people can change, and it’s about forgiveness. Good movie.

This movie is fantastic! Edgerton is great. Everyone is great. That said, Weaver’s character is creepy as eff. Such an eerie slow burning movie.

Y'all need to put more respect on Paul Schrader's name. I cried. Edgerton & Swindell are really good in this. One of the more underrated films of 2023.

It started out as a pretty interesting setup but soon you'd start to notice the outdated music score, the editing, some of the actors lack of ability to "connect" to the audience and then what was the story really about? I've seen many of Joel Edgertons movies and enjoys his acting as well as Sigourney Weaver but none of them made it in this movie. The whole movie seams like a wasted opportunity with an interesting background story.

A lot of bold and very weird narrative choices that don't always work but I respect that Schrader was trying to honestly grapple with serious issues in ways that don't fully conform to the current ideological trappings of most movies.

Edgerton in his element. Pretty faces make this movie better than it is. Do not fully understand the internal drama behind Edgerton's character, so it makes the climax underwhelming as the stakes do not seem high.

Don't waste your time!! Even Joel Edgerton can't save this boring, soulless mess. The story goes nowhere and you'll never get the hour and half back. Boo!!

It's a redemption story, beautifully acted in a wonderful setting.

Master Gardner is so heavy, it threatens to collapse under its own weight. But, like other Schrader movies, it compels you to keep watching. Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver, and Quintessa Swindell turn in fine performances. The sexual encounter scene between Edgerton and Swindell's characters, although brief, actually made me squirm. Not because it's explicit----it's not----but because of what it symbolized. And, although I wasn't sure what to expect, the film ultimately gets into Taxi Driver territory. At the end of this film, I felt as if I had been emotionally manipulated. But I was willing.