Closing out a loose trilogy of cautionary fables torn from the headlines, each concerning a troubled man wrestling with the guilt of a troubled past, legendary screenwriter/filmmaker Paul Schrader returns with the tale of Narvel Roth (Joel Edgerton), the meticulous horticulturist of Gracewood Gardens, a historic Louisiana estate overseen by wealthy dowager Mrs. Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver). When she demands that he take on her wayward great-niece (Quintessa Swindell) as a new apprentice, chaos enters Narvel’s spartan existence, unlocking dark secrets from a buried past that threaten them all.
“People who like their thrillers smart and cool-headed will get a kick out of this.” —Zhuo-Ning Su, Awards Daily “This is the director at his tenderest. Perhaps out of a desire to at last consummate redemption onscreen — or at least what redemption looks like to Schrader – or perhaps out of a mellowness acquired with age…. ‘Gardening is a belief in the future,’ says Narvel, a fitting encapsulation of a film made by a man who seems to have embraced the platitude that comes with knowing the past is settled in stone, but the future is as malleable as a garden.” —Rafaela Sales Ross, The Playlist “[Sigourney] Weaver, in a collection of fashionably prim outfits, cuts through this modest film with electric verve. As Norma Haverhill, an heiress to a family estate and its prized flower gardens, Weaver is at her flinty finest; it’s the kind of role she’s had far too little of this century.” —Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
