I was incredibly torn whether or not to see First Reformed in theaters. I thought that I should because the movie focused on a Christian grappling with real world issues. Paul Schrader is the director, and he made such viscerally memorable classics as Cat People, Patty Hearst and The Comfort of Strangers. Ethan Hawke, an underrated, hard working and prolific American actor, stars in it as Rev. Toller. On the other hand, Amanda Seyfried is in the cast. I’m not knocking her acting ability, but in most movies that cast her, she ends up being the love interest. Most women who act are beautiful, but apparently Seyfried is the kind of beautiful that rarely guarantees her a role in which she is anything more than the solution to someone’s midlife crisis (Chloe, Gringo), and as a viewer, her character rarely gets to be a complete person without being defined by her relationship to others. I decided to follow my instincts and see it at home.
After I saw it at home, I was still divided regarding whether or not I made the right choice. The whole experience was a comedy of errors, and it would have been easier to see it in the theater. I received it from Netflix. The first didn’t play in my DVD player so I requested another then mailed the first back with enough of a pause between events that I was certain that the second DVD wasn’t the same as the first. The second also didn’t play in my DVD player, but it occurred to me to try and play it in my computer. It worked, but was a dreadful viewing experience. It is not the way that movies are supposed to be seen: difficult to determine what you are seeing because less nuance in light gradient and screen glare, the proximity of the viewer to the screen means seeing your reflection, and the screen size is too small. I complained to Netflix without requesting a replacement, requested it from the library and finally almost a month later could watch it on my TV. On the big screen, it must have been magnificent to see. It is a rigorously composed and static framing that is as sparse and disciplined as the main character. As the opening credits roll, the church slowly emerges from the darkness as if we are watching a negative become developed in a darkroom. It is a visual pleasure to watch from the beginning to the end, and Lizzie could have learned a lot about how a landscape does not have to have an autumnal glow, but could be cold and stern yet still draw you in.
First Reformed is one hour fifty-three minutes long, but it lost me with a half hour to spare. The story takes a turn that I expected, but found too sensational and unrealistic though somewhat plausible if I squinted and tilted my head to the side. I would have been satisfied if this film was completely French, i.e. nothing sensational happened, and Rev. Toller was left in his dark, empty room writing in his journal still tormented.
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If I’m being extremely reductive and unkind, it is the story of a man in a midlife crisis who wants to find meaning in his life so he decides out of the blue that he cares enough about the environment to become a suicide bomber, but then says fuck the polar bears because a hot young chick loves him, and they can start a new life with her dead husband’s baby, which is a little cliché, but also a bit Biblically literal with an allusion to Ruth and Boaz. Take out the veneer of pretending to care about the environment over the course of a few weeks, and you have the relationship equivalent of buying a red convertible. Many of you may roll your eyes and chide me with “But love is God’s creative way to lift us from our despair. It is all about love.” Um, tell that to her husband with his brains blown out. It is too tidy a solution and simply silences the despair, but the problem is still there. Also I think that he just got fired.
Do I buy that he would become a terrorist? I’m not saying there aren’t eco-terrorists, but movies and television shows seem rife with environmental terrorists. I’m not saying that they don’t exist, but they don’t appear as often in the news as right leaning conservative terrorists of every shade so I’m tired of environmentalism being equated in the cinematic imagination as radicals when we have a generally tepid response to an apocalyptic issue, which is why I initially found First Reformed promising.
First Reformed illustrated how Christianity in the twenty-first century is largely uncomfortable with anything that does not make us feel good while simultaneously suggesting that Rev Toller constantly being “in the Garden [of Gethasame]” was also tiresome and not a solution. There has to be room for joy and horror, despair and hope. I loved how the movie wrestled with those issues and never lowered itself to ridiculing either side while clearly preferring one side over the other. As a movie about how a Christian navigates the world and addresses its endemic problems, it was promising, but once Rev Toller becomes radical, it inadvertently rationalizes and vindicates the conservative side and denigrates socially progressive Christians as dangerous. Also before his encounter, we have no indication that this middle aged man cares about the environment then he can’t stop talking about it. I don’t buy it. If there was an indication, coupled with his military background and his medical condition, maybe he would become a leftie Timothy McVeigh, but I don’t see a man like that destroying his church. Taking Balq out somewhere else such as the sushi restaurant or diner, maybe, but his kinship with the abolitionists and his passion over history and tradition undercut this development.
Despite my utter disappointment with the denouement of the movie, First Reformed does have value as an exegesis of the spectrum of Christian life in the twenty-first century. The character played by Cedric Kyles, aka Cedric the Entertainer, can never be dismissed as simply an opportunistic, prosperity gospel charlatan, and Michael Gaston, who deserves a special award for being able to appear on screen and transmit his character’s complete psychological profile to his audience in seconds, is never a complete villain. On second viewing, I read his criticism of Rev Toller as gentler than when I first saw it. He was not wrong about him though I initially thought that his rebuke stemmed from a completely self-interested place.
First Reformed was hitting some important points on the life of a Christian and how age and life experience transform the relationship with God from one of certainty and simplicity to realizing that a life with God does not equal a life without trouble. Just as age cools the temperament of the relationship, it similarly makes one less susceptible to extreme action, which is why the entire story seems less cohesive than I would like. Also I think that the film nailed the all-consuming rhythm of church life for Christians regardless of whether or not they formally work for the church. If you are familiar with Biblical stories, even the names of characters that appear for seconds adds texture to the story.
Without the terrorism thread, I think the multiple love triangle aspect of First Reformed still works, but perhaps Schrader was concerned about his movie being taken seriously if it just ended with a love connection without the threat of violence, but I don’t think that anyone will ever mistake this movie as a romcom or The Thorn Birds. I wanted to jump into the screen and pull Esther aside. Noooooooooo. No offense to Philip Ettinger, who plays Michael, the husband, but on his best day, he can’t beat Hawke. Steal your girl, church edition. Any person in authority, especially ministers, generally have to worry about congregants throwing themselves at them. In this case, everyone is single so shrug.
The majority of First Reformed is so good that it even drew my mom in who was not planning on watching it and generally does not enjoy dramas not based on a real life, but for particularly Christian viewers, it will probably lose you in the final act. It is a flawed vision.