The discontent felt by viewers put off by the opening of Paul Schrader’s Master Gardener is completely understandable.

Here we have yet another take on the writer/director’s so-called “God’s Lonely Man,” chronicling his woes in a diary (and via somber voiceover), seated at a desk with a healthy pour of liquor in a glass beside him. The over-familiarity is enough for even longtime fans of this set-up to feel concern for Schrader and wonder what additional crutches and tropes lie ahead.

But to dismiss Narvel Roth (Joel Edgerton) and Master Gardener as a mere rehash of past Schrader tropes is not only incorrect but takes away from the engrossing drama ahead. Firmly of a piece with First Reformed and The Card Counter, this intelligent examination of race relations and slavery through unlikely lenses may not pack quite the punch of the filmmaker’s two previous slow-burn, existential works of metaphorical national atonement, but gets damn close.

Narvel’s past won’t be spoiled here, but its revelation amidst his daily doings as the chief horticulturist at former plantation Gracewood Gardens — including tending to the, er, personal needs of his employer, Norma Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver) — combines to form a fascinating character, seemingly capable of significant good and evil.

That potential is put to the test when Mrs. Haverhill demands Narvel mentor her troubled, estranged, mixed-race granddaughter Maya (Quintessa Swindell, Black Adam), setting up a tantalizing collision course of secrets and desires that Schrader wastes little time exploring.

Indeed, laugh all you want at the austere dialogue and reserved performances on display, but Master Gardener remains constantly in motion, making good on its narrative promise while digging deep into one of Schrader’s most unexpected spotlit professions thus far. It’s also shot with a stunning visual clarity on pair with his two previous films, and while it lacks the level of surreal flourishes that gave those features some unexpected pop, the colorful fantasia when Narvel and Maya drive at night gleefully keeps that tradition alive.

As the filmmaker’s latest instrument of necessary violent compensation for society’s sins, Edgerton leans into his bulldog demeanor, moving across Narvel’s spectrum of emotions as appropriate to the situation at hand. If the rest of the cast isn’t able to keep pace, so be it, but their less magnetic turns in no way hamper the proceedings, and instead complement our anti-hero’s mission in distinctly compelling manners.

Bringing the “man in a room” trilogy to a satisfying close, Master Gardener challenges viewers just enough and rewards their attentiveness with some of the most sizzling cerebral drama in recent cinema. Nobody is making films quite like Schrader these past five years, and his efforts warrant celebration.

Grade: B-plus. Rated R. Now playing at Grail Moviehouse

(Photo: Magnolia Pictures)