Master Gardener * * *

Master Gardener is the latest film from Paul Schrader. It's a scenario which Schrader has explored in many of his films, going back to Taxi Driver: A loner aching for redemption for his wrongful past, meets a victim who needs a hero. 

Joel is a Gardener: Can you dig it?

In Schrader's previous film,  The Card Counter (2021), the hero was a specialist (gambling) with a dark past as a military interrogator.  In Master Gardener our lead character is another type of  specialist: he is a master gardener. He is ably played by Joel Edgerton.  As the story progresses we learn, in flashback, of the gardners neo-nazi past.  

Today he comes across as an upright man, even though he is unhappy with the way he has to compromise himself, especially with the owner of the property.  

He is the head gardener of a garden that is part of a fine home.  The famed garden is frequently opened to the public.  

The home is owned by a wealthy woman (Sigourney Weaver) who has a troubled niece.  The niece (Quintessa Swindell) is brought to the home to be tutored by the master gardener with the hope that she might get back on the straight and narrow once she has a job and a responsibility. 

He learns of the trouble the young girl is in when she is absent for a few days and returns with bruises upon her body.  The gardener goes into action to rid the young girl of her persecutors. Like in the Card Counter, the awful things he did in the past have at least taught him how to hurt people if need be.

If this were a novel I'd say it has some pretty good chapters but they don't hold together for a satisfactory whole.  It's like Schrader is taking a bet each way in some scenes.  The actions and words spoken by a character in one scene are then contradicted in another. Rather than an interesting plot twist, it often seems like someone forgot the intentions and emotions they previously conveyed to us. Or even worse, the director keeps changing his mind.

Yet, there are those marvellous Schrader touches.  Rooms which are stripped back.  There is almost a clinical neatness to it.  The Gardener's dwelling is basic.  The staff room is orderly.  Hotel rooms are spartan.  Even the mansion shows as little furniture and props as possible.  The austerity of these interiors emphasises the splendor of the garden.

Inevitably a love story develops but to be honest it's discomfiting to wish them well when you consider their ridiculous age difference.  But the old man winning the heart and body of a beautiful young girl is hardly unusual in cinema is it?