Eden ★★½

In a discussion with Heinz Wittmer (Daniel Brühl), Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law) pushes back on the notion that World War I showed “humanity at its worst.” To him, it showed “humanity at its truest.” This is the ethos of director Ron Howard’s bleak and grim Eden. Set on the isle of Floreana in the Galápagos Islands, Eden recounts the events that unfolded when Heinz and his wife Margret (Sydney Sweeney) arrived on the island in 1932 with their young son. Ritter had arrived with his wife Dore (Vanessa Kirby) in 1929, seeking to escape Germany amidst the rise of fascism and, in his mind, the degradation of society. Though living in such a remote location – until the Wittmer’s arrived, the Ritter’s were the islands only inhabitants – Ritter maintained a line of communication with the outside world and his letters were published in newspapers across Europe, creating a cult following and inspiring people like Heinz to think that perhaps their futures would be best served in Floreana.

Though based on true events, it is apt that Eden would be set in the Galápagos Islands with the work of Charles Darwin on natural selection and “survival of the fittest” having occurred there 100 years prior to the depicted events. The environment of Floreana is harsh. The soil is unforgiving. There is a roving band of feral dogs. There are other animal inhabitants that pose a threat to any gardens. Water is scarce. There are few caves dug by pirates, but they are barely habitable. This is not a place for the weak and with Howard peppering in shots of local wildlife, one comes to understand that Eden is a study of human nature and is just as indifferent and violent as the local ecosystem. There is the will to survive, of course, with everybody challenged without the comforts of modern society. However, even more, there is the will to destroy. There is a wickedness lurking with every character’s soul, a manipulative and cunning nature mixed with pure bloodlust that will determine whether or not they are truly cut out to survive such a harsh environment.

Ritter fires the first shots. He is a recluse, living on Floreana to escape society and to ostensibly write his book that summarizes his beliefs about human nature and philosophy. The arrival of the Wittmer’s is offensive to him and hopes to drive them away as soon as possible by referring them to the harshest area to farm in Floreana. However, the Wittmer’s do not break easily. Heinz, having served in World War I, is not a soft man and knows the cost of making it in such a place, even if it comes with considerable growing pains. Margret shows her own metal, particularly in a gruesome birth scene where she must fend off those wild dogs from attacking herself and her arriving baby during the birth. It is a harrowing, nauseating, and wildly brutal scene, one that underscores the film’s emphasis on portraying the natural order and the way in which life in the wild is defined by insatiable need and hunger. They are not people who will scare off easily, no matter Ritter’s attempts. The Wittmer’s arrival is soon followed by the arrival of “Baroness” Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn (Ana de Armas). She has struck a deal with a regional Governor for hundreds of acres of Floreana, upon which she intends to have her two male lovers, Rudolph Lorenz (Felix Kammerer) and Robert Phillippson (Toby Wallace), build an exclusive resort for the rich and famous. Though not keen to get her own hands dirty, Eloise has these two men and a servant to do her dastardly bidding for her, often showing herself to be the most morally corrupt person on the island.

All of the characters arrive in Floreana hoping to find paradise, an escape from the cruelty and wickedness of modern society. The isolation should soothe their souls, or so they think. Instead, all it does is drive them all to the brink with this remote locale serving as a microcosm of society. They are constantly at one another’s throat with this small community always looking to tear itself apart, manipulating the weak, using the defenseless as pawns in larger mind games, and trying to kill before they themselves are killed. This is the human ecosystem, a base and animalistic reality that Howard’s Eden is built upon. This is a nasty and often nihilistic work. Howard, a director with plenty of warm and heartfelt blockbusters under his belt may seem an odd choice to direct such a picture but he showcases his versatility here, though Eden would benefit from a nastier director. The picture cracks a bit more in trying to make sense of everything it throws at the screen. It is a dense and tonally jarring film. The cast all being non-Germans trying on German accents yields some goofy camp appeal – something Ana de Armas’ bombastic performance leans into – while the bleak tone, a shift in pseudo murder mystery, and an attempt to condense the various events and tragedies that befall this collection of people makes Eden a bit messy. It has so much to say and do, but it proves choppy.

Fortunately, the cast – even if saddled with accents they struggle to pull off – is impressive. De Armas is especially striking, playing this sensual and worldly agent of chaos who is always trying to seduce her way past men’s defenses to get what she wants. While men like Ritter and Heinz know violence, she knows cunning and shows it off at every opportunity. Perhaps the funniest scene in the film is one where an outsider, Allan Hancock (Richard Roxburgh), arrives. He owns part of Hollywood – “from the La Brea tar pits to Laurel Canyon” – and sensing the great opportunity before her, the Baroness tries to twist this older man around her finger but he is far too wise for her seductive tricks. His reactions and her shock at being turned away by such a man are hysterical, wonderfully delivered by Roxburgh. Jude Law does very well as Ritter, capturing his arrogance and defiance. He is the type who thinks himself above the petty in-fighting and hate of the world, but he embodies it all. Law carries himself with such airs, an intimidating presence at first that then chisels away into pure and empty bravado. One thinks Ritter knows what he is doing at first blush, but as he mentally drains away and turns to violence, one sees him for the deeply flawed and fairly typical man that he is at his core. Sydney Sweeney gives one of her most mature and raw performances, though her accent work is the worst of the main cast. It is, at times, a very physically demanding role with Sweeney throwing herself into every moment and line with full commitment and soul.

Eden is a challenging film. It has a lot on its mind about humanity and, with the setting amidst the rise of fascism, modern society. It does not excel in all of its aims, while its largely stiff upper lip prevents it from embracing some of the camp appeals of its wild events and indulgences of its cast. The real events are complicated and the history incomplete or fractured by different perspectives offered in the years that followed with Eden trying to sift through real and imagined events to tell its story about “human at its truest.” The result is a dense and sometimes tonally choppy film, one that struggles to find a consistent through-line and instead oscillates wildly from scene-to-scene as it examines the events that made up the time shared on Floreana by these three disparate groups. Gone are the conveniences of modern society, replaced with life in a false paradise that offers up only violence, brutality, and cruelty in the name of survival. Ana de Armas is a shining star throughout, establishing herself as the stand-out from this A-list cast. Though imperfect, Eden is a captivating work and one that forces the viewer to reckon with the bloody world around us.