As a screenwriter Paul Schrader is responsible for a pair of all-time classics: Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. As a director his fortunes have been more mixed with his credits ranging from American Gigolo and Affliction to being the director fired from the regrettable Exorcist prequel. Yet he seems to have found form again with First Reformed.
The film focuses on Reverend Ernst Toller as he grapples with his church's irrelevance, his own private grief and the wider issues brought forth by his parishioners. In the lead role is Ethan Hawke who has a track record of starring in great US indies (the Before trilogy, Boyhood, Waking Life) and whose performance has been called a career best since the film premiered at last year's Venice Film Festival.
First Reformed deals with heavy themes of our place in the world, forgiveness and corruption, and promises to be a weighty alternative from other summer fares. But it also promises to have a director back on form, producing a heavy-hitting tour-de-force.
Like Christianity, the director ultimately stumbles with the big question; as we near the end, how should we best handle it?
Otherwise it’s a witty script, a real film for our times. Everything can be justified, it just depends on your agenda. Fine performances from all the actors and it kept me guessing where it would go next, always the sign of a good movie imho, but for that unfortunate “palliative” ending.
