Difficult to talk about this film without spoiling some of the novelties of plot, so I’ll just give a general endorsement and invite you to a meeting of the minds after the jump.
The movie is really beautifully shot. Friend said before we went in that he’d read that apparently every shot in the film was deliberately symmetrical, which is something I promptly forgot and then started noticing about 80% into the film. The movie is drama first with copious helpings of dark humor, a number of places where the audience audibly reacted to things that were said: Toller talking to Esther after his doctor’s visit; the argument in the restaurant; the whole run up to the end.
Unexpected Turns. Almost immediately, the movie throws you off balance with Michael’s obsession with climate change and the patience and attention to detail that the camera’s willing to give him in his explanation of his apparent mania. Even more disorienting is its contagiousness. It feels at first like Toller’s surliness might isolate him from the pain of others: he’s having personal troubles with prayer, the clear imbalance of power between him and Cedric (wrought with tension that comes to the surface in their last of three meetings), his family history, which I think is where I had originally thought things would circle back to. Turns out his dead son, his divorced wife is a fallow field, an overturned tombstone in “the garden”.
I hadn’t had any engagement with the movie except for the trailer, so I had no idea about the environmental radicalism theme and how prominent a role it would play. I liked how the movie had the self-awareness to make Toller seem a little out of his depth even as he’s becoming more radicalized (“The wise man says little, but I couldn’t help myself,” to paraphrase). Even if I think the Magical Mystery Tour is going to be a divisive scene for audiences, it was a kind of smart move to find so many images that have become cultural touchstones in discussions of the impact of humans on climate change: the seabird filled with plastic, the oil-soaked creatures, a polar bear on a shelf of ice as Toller’s default desktop image, but also placed on Mary’s wall among her husband Michael’s things. I can’t tell exactly if the familiarity of these images is supposed to be partially tongue-in-cheek, giving the audience the feeling of proficiency while also needling us into coming to terms with our skin-deep knowledge or conviction: “Can God forgive us?” is the refrain.
The movie certainly has other ways that its playing with its audience’s expectations. The texts and appointments to meet with Michael seem like they’re giving some structure to the film at first: Mary’s discovery and sharing of knowledge with Toller; Toller’s quick decision not to go to the police (“No good can come from telling the police,” this line mirrors a line he’ll give later to Mary about disposing of Michael’s incriminating evidence), all seem to point toward a climactic confrontation, and then when that confrontation does not come, we’re given a new puzzle to play with as Toller finally goes to the hospital. The final scenes at First Reformed are all about toying with an audience that thinks they can see from a mile away where things are going. In part, the distortion of audience expectations of where the plot is leading is assisted by the manipulation of time.
Elasticity of Time. The film does a lot of fun things with pacing that remind me of the way that you read Brian Azarello and Eduardo Risso’s 100 Bullets. The first volume with Dizzy makes you think that every volume is a self-contained story and protagonists must have an arc, and then you hit the second, third, and fourth volumes and suddenly characters are getting offed left and right like a Hitchcock movie or a China Mieville novel, and suddenly you think that you’re going to read an episodic story, but then you hit the Counterfifth Detective in volume five and now all those episodes begin to form an even larger arc. Wife told me that people have said the same thing about the Buffy television series as well, where the early seasons seem like one-offs and the genius of Joss Whedon was building a larger arc. In what feels like the third scene of the movie, Toller goes over to Mary and Michael’s house and their conversation runs so much longer than you’re expecting! Because of our expectation from the trailer of violent radicalism, we think that the movie is going to spin circles around this conflict between hope and hopelessness, the blind leading the blind until a flashpoint occurs, but instead the pace of events is compressed leading to an entirely new direction for the plot.
The Long Game. Saving the vest is a nice long game for the movie to play, or as my older brother might say, a good “investment” that pays off. The vest plays with the images (and expectation) of fire from the trailer and promotional material that never actually come to fruition. The whole treatment of Mary’s husband when the vest is first discovered is so unexpected and unusual. It’s really the first time that Toller seems to act out of his established character and reveal himself as a complex protagonist. The movie’s shift from his status as a protagonist to an anti-hero is one of the joys of viewing: his surly words for Esther, his robust drinking, his intense interest in the businessman bankrolling the 250th anniversary of the church.
Music. The film is almost devoid of background music except for the diegetic music from the choir. Here’s a preliminary list I found from the interwebs:
- 1. “Are You Washed in the Blood”
- 2. “Who’s Going To Stand Up And Save The Earth” a capella
- 3. “The Old Rugged Cross”
- 4. “Onward, Christian Soldiers”
- 5. “Leaning On The Everlasting Arms”
The gospel music is ambiguous in tone as much of the rest of the movie, at times darkly humorous (the joke about “A Might Fortress Is Our God”), ironic (as in the funeral arrangement and the final song), and uplifting.
We’re 3 for 3 since wife left, but I’ll be on the PCH for a few days to avoid the creep of idleness and isolation in the absence of custodianship, so let’s call this a happy streak.
Slate, Vulture, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker are working through the movie.
