Review: First Reformed

"This journal brings me no peace. Self-pity, nothing more," Reverend Toller (Ethan Hawke) writes in writer-director Paul Schrader's bleak and devastating drama, First Reformed. Owing much to Robert Bresson in general and Bresson's Diary of a Country Priest in particular, First Reformed also calls to mind Schrader's best-known work, his screenplay for Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, another tale in which an isolated figure undergoes a dark night of the soul.

When we first see the 46-year-old Toller, he is embarking upon an experiment - to keep a journal for one entire year, setting down the simple events of his day, factually and without hiding anything. At the end of the year, all his unvarnished thoughts shall then be shredded and then burned. For him, the journal is to be a form of speaking, a form of prayer but confronting his unfiltered thoughts soon provokes inner conflict. This burgeoning turmoil is further exacerbated by a request from one of his congregants, Mary (Amanda Seyfried), who is concerned about the mental state of her husband, Michael (Philip Ettinger), an environmentalist whose believes in taking extreme actions to protect his beliefs.

The meeting between the two men validates Mary's concerns, reveals the tragic circumstances that led him to be a man of the cloth, and provokes something within Toller. "Courage is the solution to despair," Toller advises Michael, "reason provides no answers, we have to choose despite uncertainty." Later, writing in his journal, he reflects upon what he could have said instead and castigates himself for wayward thoughts. There's a transference that occurs between Michael and Toller, who is soon spending more time in the company of the pregnant and devout Mary and becoming more convinced of Michael's beliefs that humanity is ruining the planet to the point where it would almost be murder to bring another human into the world.

While Toller grapples with this and the potential destruction that Michael may inflict upon the world when Mary finds a suicide vest in their garage, he is also dealing with his own personal issues, namely that his urinating blood means that he has a very serious illness. His mental and physical state is cause for worry for his ecclesiastical superior, Reverend Jeffers (Cedric Kyles, better known as Cedric the Entertainer, and doing very well in a dramatic role), who himself has other more important matters to deal with like the church's upcoming 250th anniversary celebration. Even if one isn't familiar with the trajectory of Schrader's films, there are enough clues throughout the film to strongly suggest that there will be blood.

Though the film's formality may verge on the severe, Schrader adds artifice to the austerity as highlighted by the remarkable scene in which Mary and Toller, lying on top of one another, levitate and the confines of the room give way to backdrops of the cosmos and majestic landscapes and seascapes which soon give way to images of environmental disasters. Just as effective and noteworthy is the scene of Toller wrapping barbed wire around himself, wincing as his flesh is punctured.

Perhaps the film's contemplative nature may disappoint those expecting something more visceral, but it doesn't dissuade from the impressiveness of Schrader's achievement nor does it change the hard fact that Hawke delivers one of the best performances of his career.

First Reformed

Directed by: Paul Schrader

Written by: Paul Schrader

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, Cedric "the Entertainer" Kyles, Victoria Hill, Philip Ettinger, Michael Gaston