It’s Cold Outside

By Tom Pacak

Ethan Hawke is one of the most interesting actors out there. He’ll either do great (anything he’s been in with Richard Linklater) or God-awful (Getaway, The Purge). In Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed,” Hawke brilliantly plays Rev. Ernst Toller, an alcoholic protestant minister who goes through a spiritual and psychological crisis. Think Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) but with a conscience.

Director Paul Schrader grew up going to the Calvinist Christian Reformed Church. Early in his life, he lived through strict religious teaching, which prevented him from seeing movies. As a young movie critic, Schrader expressed his deep admiration for religious movies, not “faith-based movies,” which he would describe as propaganda. In “First Reformed,” Schrader set out to expose the flaws of religion and how money controls the churches.   

Schrader opens up the film in pitch black then slowly zooming into the white First Reformed Church in Snowbridge, New York. The masses have an average of 10 people per mass and the church seems more invested in money than healing damaged souls.  I tried googling to see if the church is actually real, it is not. I love visiting churches. They are a beautiful place of reflection and celebration. This was a huge letdown for me. 

Schrader shot the film in 1:33 ratio to symbolize how the churches think old-fashioned. He even shows this metaphorically through how Toller conducts his daily life. He still uses a flip phone, drives an old car, and lives in the old beaten down church. Toller runs the church to his own satisfaction. He is an isolated man who struggles to take care of himself (to the annoyance of his peers). Toller is revealed to have been a once married military chaplain who encouraged his son to enlist in the Iraq War, which he later points out as “a useless war.” This traumatic event put a hole in Toller’s once happy life. He now spends his remaining days drinking and writing about his suffering in journals.

Toller’s misery becomes worse when a young woman named Mary (Amanda Seyfried) comes to his aid asking to heal her husband Michael (Philip Ettinger). Michael is a radical environmentalist on the verge of instability; Mary later finds a suicide vest in their garage, which frightens both her and Toller. Is Michael willing to destroy his gift of life so he can protect the Earth God created? Through their exchange, Michael and Toller debate how you can still find hope in a damaged world, even though Toller’s service as a pastor is both repentance and self-indulgent. Michael insists to Toller that he wants his wife to get an abortion so they can avoid raising a child in a world that fails to protect itself.  

What Schrader does in this movie is very compelling, he makes Michael’s insane state of mind seem justified. All of the remaining characters in this film are controlled by greed. The brother church of First Reformed, Abundant Life, is run by a puppet Pastor Jeffers (Cedric the Entertainer), who only seems concerned about where the money is.  And it doesn’t help that the main corporation running the 250^th anniversary of the First Reformed Church is the 5^th highest-polluting company according to the EPA (anti-EPA, EPA Scott Pruitt would be proud).

Through these turn of events, Toller is forced to reexamine his own beliefs. Why do we destroy the planet that God created? How do we protect it? These questions plague Toller as he watches videos on climate change and suicide bombings. Toller becomes so interested in finding an answer to stop polluting the Earth even though he’s polluted himself with alcohol and self-misery.

Those familiar with Paul Schrader’s works know that he’s using old themes he's explored before (most notably Taxi Driver). In “Taxi Driver,” Travis Bickle was a man who thought his justice was to protect women from prostitution rings. He felt like a silent guardian; a watchful protector. At first, Rev. Toller used being a pastor to escape a life he considered a failure. Through Michael and Mary, Toller was able to find his true purpose as a radical environmentalist.

A closing scene involves the corporation, Pastor Jeffers, and a bunch of blind followers gathering for the anniversary of the First Reformed Church. During this scene, Rev. Toller is debating on doing something that will impact his life in a negative fashion. He sees Mary walk inside the church, there; Toller has found the saving grace in his life that must be protected. Finally, even though losing everything, Toller has found why God put him on this Earth. 

Rating: 4 stars out of 4

Note: Now Playing in Theaters