Plot: The shocking true story of a group of Europeans who settle on a remote island only to discover their greatest threat isn’t the brutal climate or deadly wildlife, but each other.
Review: When you think of stories about survival in remote locations that descend into brutality, the first tale that likely pops into your mind is Lord of the Flies. The classic novel about children forming a society that quickly devolves from a hierarchy of power into bloodshed and death has long been a cautionary tale for all. It is a shocking story we can enjoy because we know it is fiction. It becomes even more disturbing when that same narrative is told but based on actual events. Eden, the latest film from Ron Howard, is based on the actual events that occurred in the 1930s when settlers on the remote island of Floreana in the Galapagos Islands. There, three groups will create alliances and enemies with deadly consequences. Led by an ensemble that includes Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Ana de Armas, Daniel Bruhl, and Sydney Sweeney, Eden is unique compared to Ron Howard’s previous work and offers a dark glimpse of humanity at its lowest, but with a sense of hope mixed into the horror.
Eden opens on Floreana as Heinz Wittmer (Daniel Bruhl), his wife Margret (Sydney Sweeney), and Heinz’s son from his first marriage, Harry (Jonathan Tittel), land on the island to follow in the footsteps of Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law). Ritter and his common law wife, Dora Strauch (Vanessa Kirby), have sent correspondence back to Germany about their desire to leave modern society and attempt to forge a new one based on his philosophy. Ritter and Strauch are reluctant to have others on the island, which is inhospitable to farming and populated by wild dogs and boars. The Wittmers, drawn to the prospect of a new start after Heinz’s experiences fighting in World War I and young Harry’s recovery from tuberculosis, struggle in their early time on the island which becomes further complicated when self-proclaimed baroness Eloise Bosquet de Wager Wehrhorn (Ana de Armas) lands with the announcement she is building an exclusive hotel and resort on Floreana. The Baroness quickly draws the ire of both the Ritters and the Wittmers with her pair of lovers, Robert (Toby Wallace) and Rudolph (Felix Kammerer), and their wasteful lifestyle.
When Dr. Ritter and Dora’s garden is destroyed and the Wittmers have their stores stolen, the tensions mount between the three groups, each of whom is wary of the others. As the months pass, relationships fall apart, and the few weapons on the island are used more and more frequently. The ideologies of each character begin to shift as the fear they have of each other begins to become reality. Eden showcases greed, guilt, vanity, and power in equal measure with perseverance, determination, and hope, with the characters you would expect to be exhibiting each not aligning with what you may expect. Jude Law, donning prosthetics to give the appearance of having no teeth, portrays Dr. Ritter as a nihilist who views all of humanity with disdain. While he has a dedicated acolyte in Dora, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, the dynamic between Ritter and Strauch becomes tenuous as their food and beliefs deteriorate over time. Ana de Armas plays a solid villain, making the Baroness a deluded conwoman who uses her beauty as a tool to bend men to her will, something Toby Wallace (The Bikeriders) and Felix Kammerer (All Quiet on the Western Front) do willingly as Robert and Rudolph, even when it means doing things that go against their better judgement.
Daniel Bruhl and Sydney Sweeney wonderfully play the most likable characters in Eden. Following Americana, Eden is another against-type character for Sweeney, who gets the most significant character development throughout the film. Sweeney continues to prove her mettle as a dramatic actress, with one scene in particular involving wild dogs and a newborn baby riddled with tension. At a little over two hours, Eden moves relatively slowly as it chronicles the four seasons of 1932. The trio of Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney, and Ana de Armas are the strongest characters in the cast, with Jude Law and Daniel Bruhl solid but supporting the overall story more. The small ensemble is all well-suited to their roles, and each gets some good dialogue to dig into, but is complemented by some cringeworthy lines that pull away from the tale’s believability. All of the characters deliver their lines in vaguely competent German accents that seem to go in and out depending on the complexity of their lines.
Written by Noah Pink (Tetris), Eden is based on a story developed by Pink and Ron Howard. It marks Howard’s first story credit since 1992’s Far and Away and the grittiest, darkest film he has directed since In The Heart of the Sea. Filmed primarily in Queensland, Australia, with some shots from the Galapagos, Eden boasts a muted palette from cinematographer Mathias Herndl and a subdued score from Hans Zimmer. Ron Howard’s direction looks very different from any other film he has helmed, with a naturalistic look that makes excellent use of the tropical setting that keeps the rugged terrain looking deceptively beautiful but chock full of underlying threats in the form of wild animals and limited resources. The entire time I watched the film, I was struck by the uneven pacing. The film has five or six intense sequences interspersed with long stretches reliant on dialogue. The film also shifts significantly from a survival thriller to something different in the closing act that undermines the promise of the film’s first two-thirds while still echoing the true story.
Eden is a more substantial visual effort by Ron Howard that distinguishes itself from his previous films, which may be due to this film feeling more like an independent than his typical studio productions. However, it still struggles to maintain enough momentum to keep the shocking nature of the film through the ending. Over the closing credits, film footage from 1932 showing the actual residents of Floreana shows how close Eden looks to the real events while shedding some light on the conflicting nature of what happened. Anchored by strong performances from the ensemble, especially Sydney Sweeney and Ana de Armas, Eden is an intriguing story that could have used a tighter running time to drive home the brutality we see punctuating many parts of the film. If anything, Eden will prompt viewers to look up more details about the events that occurred on Floreana, with the fact that much of this story is true, making it all the more disturbing.
Eden opens in theaters on August 22nd.
Source:
JoBlo.com
