Chicago Critics Film Fest 2023 Review: Master Gardener

✰✰✰½

Synopsis: A meticulous horticulturist is devoted to tending the grounds of a beautiful estate that a wealthy dowager owns. When he's told to take on her troubled great-niece as an apprentice, his life is thrown into chaos and dark secrets from his past emerge.

Review: Oh, Paul Schrader. You are one cerebral legend. But "Master Gardener" is almost too cerebral in it's execution. The frank nature (no pun intended) of the writer-director doesn't translate to the film's characters effectively. Schrader does enjoy his performers to narrate, and "Master Gardener" is no exception. Joel Edgerton--an impressive director in his own right--doesn't exude what is fully necessary for Schrader's words to fully bloom, but still remains interesting. Sigourney Weaver gets a meaty part that I wish was expanded. Quintessa Swindell is quite good as well. But in the end, this is no "First Reformed." Schrader will keep working, no doubt, so at least what he is putting on the page and into film is interesting. 

Note: This film screen in advance of CCFF 2023 showing.