If First Reformed were a painting, it would be a work by Edward Hopper.
Like paintings by the American realist artist, this Paul Schrader film is spare, austere, all angles and edges, featuring a small group of lonely souls.
Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke) is the loneliest and most despairing of all. He's the pastor of a small upstate New York church that's all white clapboard and sharp angles. By the time we meet him, he's already experienced debilitating loss. He suffers emotionally and physically. He's plagued by guilt and remorse.
When Pastor Toller meets a young environmental activist on the cusp of becoming an environmental terrorist, his dark world further blackens. His depression, like a barnacle, attaches to what he sees as our planet's doomed future.
Can God forgive us for what we've done to his creation? he asks. You don't have to be a therapist to know he also wonders if there's any hope for him.
And so the Movie Slut asks: Can Paul Schrader be forgiven for enveloping us in this dark shroud of a flick? To which she answers, absolutely. Like Hopper, he doesn't make us smile. He makes us think.
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