June 10, 2018 2 min to read

First Reformed

First Reformed is egregiously mis-marketed, and badly underwritten. Religious symbols aren't enough to save this sleepy script.

by Zach Saul

First Reformed is about an environmentalist who killed himself and the aftermath surrounding his suicide and two churches in upstate New York. An interesting confrontation between an environmental extremist and a priest ended in the first fifteen minutes, and so too did the tension keeping the narrative going. There are big ideas that get thrown out in many of the movie’s sequences, but they’re sadly left to die, unexplored.

I understand that this film is supposed to be a portrait of a man struggling with what it means to be Christian, but I found his character (Reverend Toller) to be extremely underwritten. The climax of the movie occurs when Reverend Toller inadvertently discovers that the neighboring megachurch Abundant Life is being funded by one of the world’s top polluters. This moment felt hollow for a lot of reasons, but first and foremost; it didn’t make sense why the Reverend wasn’t already deeply resentful of the neighboring church. Given the size of his congregation, and their comparative wealth, there were a million reasons for him to feel the sort of resentment to drive someone into madness. Instead it felt like he disingenuously adopted the cause of a grieving widow as an excuse to lash out. I never felt as a viewer like I understood what Toller cared about, why he was drawn to Mary (Amanda Seyfried), or why he wanted to strap on a suicide vest.

Mary (the extremist’s wife) develops an inexplicably deep relationship with Reverend Toller (Ethan Hawke), and the two embark on a slow, unpleasant journey through their issues. This journey culminates is an exceedingly strange “magical mystery tour” in which the two levitate off the ground and travel through space. I applaud the insertion of magical realism into an otherwise dull film, but it neither made sense, nor fit the tone in any way. Instead if contributed to a heavy-handed Jesus metaphor I’ve seen in movies one too many times. Granted, I’m not a Christian, and perhaps there are aspects of the movie I would have understood more deeply has I studied the new testament in elementary school. That being said, I felt First Reformed glazed over the existential questions if could have asked and instead force fed the audience a gruesome/nauseating crescendo of the Reverend’s crucifixion.
The Good: To it’s credit, First Reformed does present some big questions. How do we reconcile the cruelty and thoughtfulness of others with the existence of God? What role does faith realistically play in the grieving process?
The Bad: None of these questions are answered with any nuance or sophistication. The Reverend’s suicide plan (which the audience is aware of for an agonizing 45 minutes) is an excuse to avoid the discussion, and a microcosm of the rest of the film’s incomplete ideas. In addition, the film features a virtually non-existent score to accompany a very muted palette of emotions. I believe a score would have been tremendously helpful to this movie because emotional guidance was in low supply.