Writer-director Paul Schrader serves up yet another antihero plagued by a troubled, violent past in “Master Gardener.” Narvel Roth (Joel Edgerton) is a former neo-Nazi, now in witness protection, who works as the head gardener on the enormous Southern estate of the to-the-plantation-born domineering heiress Norma Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver).
It should be said at the outset that, based on that premise, some might immediately want to designate this film as more foisting of the Hollywood leftist agenda—more racial divide-and-conquer Marxist-type propaganda. That’s certainly a possibility. But the purification and redemption themes would appear to overpower such speculation. It seems to be much more of a good-always-wins-in-the-end message.
Back to Narvel Roth: A man dedicated to his craft, with an encyclopedic knowledge of horticultural history, Narvel oversees the “curated botany” of Norma’s Gracewood Gardens. She respects Narvel’s mastery, defers to his opinions, and he in turn is very honest with her. But secretly, he’s providing extorted, unsavory favors for her being complicit in keeping his former identity, as Shakespeare would say, “in the deep bosom of the ocean buried.”
The Grand Niece
After the lay of the land, mansion, garden, and the help’s various relationships to Norma are established, Norma saddles Narvel with a new job. Her biracial grandniece, Maya (Quintessa Swindell) who recently lost her mother, will be joining the ranks.Maya has dropped out of school and started running with a bad crowd. Norma describes Maya as being of “mixed blood.” Her choice of words speaks volumes about her thinly veiled disapproval, and her invitation to Maya to work at the manor is far more of a self-aggrandizing act of saviorism than generosity. Narvel will be so kind as to expand his duties to take Maya on as a new gardening apprentice.
Truth Will Out
Addressing his small group of apprentices, Narvel is quietly passionate. He explains loam, the best planting soil, urging his students to bury their noses in it and infuse their nostrils with the rich scent. Take a wild guess as to how the young, rebellious Maya’s relationship to the older, taciturn, wise, brutally handsome, in-charge, fatherly, master gardener evolves? What driftless, fatherless girl wouldn’t develop a yearning for such a man?And how would he, a man who hates himself for past, sordid, genocidal sins as well as the current “dirty deeds done dirt cheap” that he needs to perform weekly to keep his situation—how would he respond to the attention of a comely member of the “mongrel race” that he’d once obsessed about exterminating? He, a changed man who gave up his familial militia to the Feds, and who would like nothing more than to be able to atone?
But the past has a way of working its way to the surface like a persistent weed. How might Maya react were she to catch a glimpse of the white supremacy tattoo-fest of lightning-bolt SS symbols, swastikas, and skulls that cover Narvel’s body?
Overall
Most of the movie follows the Narvel-Maya relationship as it evolves from teacher-pupil, to father-daughter, to potentially something more. There’s an intuited, kindred-spirit connection that they feel, part of which are the pasts they’re both attempting to outrun. Schrader plays around with our expectations, taking things in some unpredictable directions.Edgerton’s charisma produces a beguiling portrayal of a solitary man seeking atonement, via current-day scenes and unsettling flashbacks. In today’s social media-generated, knee-jerk judgment hysteria, though, some viewers may recoil at the film’s premise to the point that they’re unable to accept the titular character’s inner change of heart, hung up as they will be by the extremes of his past (and tattoos).
But this is just the kind of cognitive dissonance that Schrader would clearly like people to experience, where the audience has to wrestle with uncomfortable themes. It’s in this relationship that Schrader’s provocateur reputation is most apparent. However, the story is delicately told, with disarming and captivating tenderness.
Ultimately, though, “Master Gardener” is about the futility of trying to maintain strict order and isolation in life. Narvel’s journey from violence to redemption must embrace the chaos that is Maya. It’s a great concept. If only the movie’s tempo didn’t move at the pace of a garden snail on a rutabaga leaf.
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