Written & Directed By: Paul Schrader
Cinematography: Alexander Dynan
Editor: Benjamin Rodriguez Jr.
Cast: Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver, Quintessa Swindell, Esai Morales, Eduardo Losan, Victoria Hill, Amy Le, Matt Mercurio, Erika Ashley, Jared Bankens
A meticulous horticulturist is devoted to tending the grounds of a beautiful estate and pandering to his employer, the wealthy dowager.
This is a strange film not in a bad way. It just feels strangely paste like everything feels slow but it also feels stately like it’s taking its time for everything to take effect maybe because it’s about gardening in the first place. It’s trying to set its seed and let it grow throughout the film. So that you finally will see what it grows into.
It definitely feels like a Paul Schrader film especially his more recent work or later career work because it feels like each film takes a bit of the one before it and then either adds something to it and then the next film has things from the previous two films, and adds to it in its own way as I mean throughout pulse trader’s career. Most of his main characters have been journal enthusiasts. It gives us a way to have narration that is more of an inner monologue for the character.
As most of his films are character studies either way also, you know, they seem sad and their ways, because usually their older characters who have lived life and are now seeming to come towards the end of it, but they live by a strict set of rules codes until someone makes them break it for whatever reason Sometimes it’s usually revenge or if not revenge some kind of defense of someone they care about this film is no different
The only thing that is really different from his previous films is how there are a lot of unspoken matters at hand, and there is kind of a thriller element, the violence threat of the film. It seems comes from characters are just so minor that you’re never truly scared of them and you know that the League character can handle them very easily, but then again, that might be where it tries to be reality whereas most of the figures that were scared of in life are not the ones you would ever think of being big bags are villains and not to mention just because their small scale doesn’t mean that they can’t cause big problems or troubles Especially for the main character who is in hiding for the most part
Another strength of this film that ends up developing is his romance with his assistant, who happens to be African-American, which kind of messes up the ongoing relationship. He has with Sigourney Weaver, who already has a problem with his assistant and the way she talks to her, and now seemingly believes that she has taken his heart, and taken him from her bedroom Though, at times, it feels like Weaver's character even though upper crust an upper class also might have a little change of racism herself when it comes to her granddaughter, as well as age jealousy
The reveal of the lead actor being a white supremacist gang member lets us know that he has a dangerous past and how he ended up where he is but it also lets us know as in the words of Liam Neeson. He is a man of certain skills even though it seems like when he was back with the gang he was drinking and drugging and reckless, and now he’s clearheaded And not reckless but can be dangerous and it feels sort of like he’s paying for his sins, especially as he works around a diverse crew and takes a shine, especially to an African-American young lady
Joel Egerton is excellent in the role of the master gardener. I just wish that the movie had more for him to do or more to challenge his character with because, by the time the third act comes around happily, this isn’t a film that is a thriller or has any real kind of action it’s more about consequences and decisions that are made, which is different for a modern film and dealing with the complexities of that but it also feels like a film that you’re waiting around to get started and it never quite does instead, you just flow with it.
And it’s own way. It feels more literary than visual, even though it is a film, and the dialogue isn’t always sparkling.
It might also throw a little off that the granddaughter character comes across as so young and not that Egerton’s character is old, but noticeably older that it feels a little odd and cringe-inducing you’re glad that their characters have made this connection but also in the back of your mind, you’re wondering since he was separated from his family is this in its own way him taking her as a surrogate daughter, but then things turning sexual and romantic
I can see why Paul Schrader originally wanted Zendaya to play. The role is also another big name in the film and a less extreme version of her character on the show EUPHORIA, but she gets to stretch her dramatic muscles on the big screen that didn’t happen but she might’ve had more of a present as a character in the film, whereas Quintessa Swindell in the film, because you’re not quite sure where she’s really supposed to fit in other than being a new element into the ecosystem, that is this garden and household. Though it gives the actress the chance to show she can hold her own.
He might seek to put some seeds in her so that they can grow and have a new family. as the ending of this film is pretty cut and dry simplistic, and not as violent haphazard, or convoluted when it comes to the characters as some of his previous films and their characters by the end.
The film is perfectly fine and seems to survive in its own space though it’s not the most exciting movie it deserves to watch, but don’t expect that much
Grade: C+
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