Master Gardener ★★★½

WHAT do Joel Edgerton, Ethan Hawke, Oscar Isaacs, George C. Scott and Robert De Niro have in common?

All have played powerful and complex characters created for the screen by American writer and director Paul Schrader.

Australian Edgerton is the latest in Master Gardener, the third film in a loose trilogy that also comprises the excellent First Reformed and The Card Counter.

Schrader is interest in the act of being a decent person and, in doing so, focuses on complex characters who have experienced both sides of humanity.

In First Reformed it was a priest struggling with his faith and purpose, in The Card Counter a former soldier struggling with his past acts and ongoing worth.

In the latest film Edgerton plays the head of a team looking after the garden at a rich woman’s estate.

The dour professional appears non-pleased when his employer, played by dugout net Weaver, insists on him taking on a family member as an apprentice.

The efforts of the white, older man and younger, African-American woman to work together are thwarted by secrets that emerge on both sides.

The overt garden metaphor generally works well, although there are a couple of dubious missteps that take the viewer out of the film.

Schrader’s words are as usual enthralling to hear and the slow reveals in the narrative are very well done.

The climax is lacking Schrader’s usual power but the chemistry between Edgerton and Quintessa Swintell maintains the interest throughout.