A Preacher’s Faith Arrives at a Crossroads

Ethan Hawke and Amanda Seyfried in "First Reformed"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

Through difficult times, most might look to a higher power to request help and have their questions answered.  We’re not sure what everything means, and we search for some clarity to provide us with a better understanding of where we fit in this world and what our purpose is.  Sometimes we find what we seek, and sometimes we don’t.  The lives we live don’t offer any easy answers to their overall meanings, but we can’t help but look for that meaning from time to time.

This is something that’s explored with a haunting examination in writer-director Paul Schrader’s drama-thriller, “First Reformed,” an incendiary film with a magnificent performance from Ethan Hawke and a story that takes you deep into his character’s psyche.

Reverend Toller (Hawke) is the head of the First Reformed Church in upstate New York.  One day, after a sermon, a young woman, Mary (Amanda Seyfried), requests his help in counseling her husband, Michael (Philip Ettinger), a radical environmentalist whom she believes may be a danger to himself and others.  In addition to this, Reverend Toller also deals with health problems, preparations for his church’s 250th anniversary, a decreasing congregation, and a new mega-church that threatens to make his obsolete.  With these troubles, Toller will begin to question his beliefs and whether or not the life he’s been living has been the right one. 

Hawke delivers a next-level performance as the conflicted reverend.  The way that Hawke carries himself makes his character seem like he’s the shell of a former, better self who hasn’t found anything to live for outside of his church.  You can hear the heartbreak in Toller’s voice, as if he always has something else going on in the back of his mind.  Hawke’s character keeps a journal throughout the film, and the scenes in which Toller writes in it seem like the only times where we hear his true self and what he feels about everything that’s occurring around him.  It’s through these journalistic musings where we receive an idea about his fractured beliefs, and whenever we see Hawke on screening, you’re heartbroken by how unsure Tooler is of his faith, such is the power of Hawke’s portrayal of his character’s doubtfulness.

Although this is Hawke’s movie through and through, the supporting performances from Seyfried, Ettinger, and Cedric Kyles (Cedric the Entertainer), who plays the mega-church’s pastor, they still leave enough of an impact to make their performances stand out.  This is particularly the case with Ettinger and Kyles, as Hawke’s character has deep discussions with both of their characters about their world views, which soon have an impact on his own.

Schrader’s screenplay provides a compelling examination of his main character’s beliefs.  Given how small the cast is, we have many scenes where Reverend Toller is by himself, and this allows the narrative to provide us with a look at his loneliness and the slow unraveling of his life.  Because Schrader wrote the screenplays for “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull” (the latter of which he co-wrote with Mardik Martin), you can see that he has a talent for crafting lead characters who deal with isolation in some form or another and what effects it has on their lives.  The scenes where Toller’s alone and we hear his narration as he writes in his journal provide us with a heart-to-heart as Schrader maps out the inner thoughts of his main character.  His journal is his own confessional, and by Schrader using narration like this, it’s as if Toller is a churchgoer confessing to a clergyman, all of which goes back to a line said by Cedric Kyle’s character, Pastor Jeffers: “Even a pastor needs a pastor.”

In regard to the focus on environmentalism, it’s remarkable how well it fits into the movie without feeling unsubtle or out of place, and the impact that Michael’s environmental views have on Reverend Toller is what brings the latter’s arc into unexpected directions.

The way in which Schrader captures the conversations between his characters provides the film with a lot of its strength.  And, with the help of Alexander Dynan’s cinematography, which uses a 1.37:1 aspect ratio that results in a frame that’s almost square-like, the limited space within that frame allows for a feeling of intimacy with the characters. 

Although the atmosphere is pretty subdued throughout the first two thirds of the film, it’s in the final third where Schrader begins to make your expectations run wild as you start to think what Reverend Toller’s next actions will be, and it gets to the point where you’re almost sweating by the time that the last 10 minutes come around.

We’re only in May, but I can say that “First Reformed” is one of the best films that 2018 has offered so far.  It’s a movie whose mood engulfs, whose dialogue immerses, and whose story astonishes.  Your moviegoing won’t be complete this year until you see it.

Final grade: A