Hidden Gem “First Reformed” Examines Faith and Struggle

I hadn’t heard of First Reformed until a friend said “Come see this with me.” That’s all it took for me to walk into the theater with zero expectations. Written and directed by Paul Schrader, First Reformed is a study of a man of God at a crossroad. Reverend Toller, played wonderfully by Ethan Hawke, is a movie of a man haunted by his past and unsure of his future. He presides over a small historically significant, but almost laughably under-attended, church nicknamed “the tourist shop” by attendees of sister church, Abundant Life. He lives and works and worships in the shadow of the mega-church and of his past.

Hawke is heart breakingly good in the role of a faltering priest, disillusioned father, and sinner. Hawkes communicates Toller’s internal struggle in so many ways: his voice is scalpel here. The voiceovers, Toller reading from a journal he introduces in the first scenes of the movie, are an effective device to convey emotionality in a character who is so very restrained. Likewise, he uses his facial expressions to great impact. We can see the forces of guilt and faith of obligation and desire wrestling right beneath the surface. This is Hawke at his absolute best.

One of his few parishioners, a visibly pregnant Mary (Amanda Seyfried) asks Toller to talk with her husband Michael (Philip Ettinger) who has grown increasingly distraught over the state of the world and man’s shepherdship of it. The interaction between these two men becomes invigorating and challenges Tol…