EDEN (USA | 2024 | 129m | Ron Howard)
In Eden, Ron Howard dives into the dark scheming heart of humanity in recounting a true story of self-promotional Galapagos settlers in the 1930s. Jude Law shines as an off-the-grid German doctor (Friedrich Ritter) trying to save the world through philosophy. Accompanied only by his true-believing wife (Dora Strauch) and her beloved donkey, he casts himself as a wild golden god king of the remote island. Having rejected burgeons society, he pecks away on an old typewriter, sending dispatches of his survivalism to any newspaper who will publish while formulating a treatise to counter the dire state of the far away world. Although hard won through constant toil, tales of their sensual vegetarian subsistence in an exotic land eventually draws followers.
Their solace is broken when the surprisingly capable Wittmer family — Sydney Sweeney, Daniel Bruehl, Jonathan Tittel, and a very good boy German Shepherd show up as unlikely settlers. Sweeney’s Margret reads as far more skeptical of having left their comfortable life behind, but she brings a steely commitment to her husband’s endeavor, in large part due to a belief that the equatorial climate will be more amenable to her son’s fragile lungs. Cast aside by the good doctor, they’re left to eke out a meager existence on a remote hillside where they battle Floreana’s harsh seasons with skilled determination.
Like a proto-White Lotus, amid the gorgeous untamed scenery (Australia stands in for the Galapagos) the stacked cast absolutely feasts on campy drama and inter-island rivalries, but none more so than Anna de Armas as a Baroness hotelier who absolutely elevates the whole picture. Channeling the scheming spirit of Anna Delvey she makes a dramatic entrance with two buff hunks in a volatile thruple, big plans for a beachfront hotel, a ridiculous glamping setup, and almost no real skills but the force of her outsized ambitions.
Per the title, things inevitably go to hell in highly salacious and compelling fashion. With terribly awkward dinner parties, murder plots, and wild animals ever on the periphery waiting to pounce, It’s all more than a bit soapy and silly. The fact that some version of this all really happened comes as its own shock, making this real life allegory of a stratified society a tremendous amount of thought-provoking fun with resonance in the present day.
Eden had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival