R | 1h 51m | Drama | May 19, 2023
Writer-director Paul Schrader serves up yet another anti-hero 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 a to-the-plantation-born domineering heiress Norma Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver).
Narvel Roth (Joel Edgerton), Norma Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver), and “Porch Dog,” in “Master Gardener.” (Magnolia Pictures)
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.”…