First Reformed
The writer behind iconic films Taxi Driver and Raging Bull has gained lots of attention and acclaim with this slow-burning watch. It sheds light on Paul Schrader’s quality scripting of central figures facing conflict.
Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke) is a reverend at the First Reformed church in New York. He begins keeping track of his thoughts in a journal; alongside this he gets asked by church-goer Mary (Amanda Seyfried) to help counsel her husband Michael who has become isolated through his strong views about global warming.
I found the first 90 minutes or so of the film to be the strongest. The final 20 are indeed ‘out there’ moments and give the movie a spiritual identity, but I liked the gentile almost unnerving pace of watching the reverend’s character being set up and then dismantled as his beliefs cross with Michael’s.
This conflict of belief makes for an engrossing watch and Schrader keeps the majority of scenes in a still aspect ratio of 1.37:1. This screening gives the film a vaguely claustrophobic feel. It’s only as the final minutes arrive that the camera becomes more animated, circling around characters and moving more than it had been, this works with the dramatic interpretative ending nicely.
First Reformed does have transcendent moments which have us literally floating through the beauty of Mother Earth and the consequent human made destruction it bears, but it’s this moment where the weighty climate change theme became too on the nose. However a scene between Toller and Michael discussing the horrors of pollution, deforestation etc is brilliant, simply shot and fuelled with bitterness.
Amanda Seyfried excels in a turn as a grief-stricken wife bearing a child. I’m sure it’s no coincidence that she’s called Mary as Seyfried plays a comforting presence to the toils of Toller’s journey. Ethan Hawke is quite hypnotising as this pastor facing anguish. He performs with subtlety, handing Toller a calm shaky edge of instability.
If you don’t like slow films or don’t believe that climate change is a thing then this story of faith, loss and a parable for the modern era with politics and global warming, is not for you. Aside from a disappointing ending, this is a film that’s thought provoking and will stick with me.
7/10
