“Eden” (2025) is Ron Howard’s best film. Based on a true story, the residents of Floriana, one of the Galapagos Islands, takes voting off the island to treacherous extremes. Dr. Ritter (Jude Law) and Dore Strauch (Vanessa Kirby), his lover and apostle, live on the island to achieve enlightenment, but tales of their exploits attract other visitors. Starting in 1929, Heinz (Daniel Brühl), Margret (Sydney Sweeney) and Harry Wittmer (Jonathan Tittel) arrive as adoring, naïve and trusting fans, but the rough and challenging terrain makes them more invested in the island as equals. Dr. Friedrich Ritter sees them as unwanted distractions to writing his book, but conditions deteriorate further when the Baroness Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn (Ana de Armas) arrives with a flourish and a retinue: her bodyguard, Manuel Borja (Ignacio Gasparini), engineer, Rudolph Lorenz (Felix Kammerer), and right-hand man, Robert Phillipson (Toby Wallace). As they fight over resources and pit people against each other, emotions run high. Who will survive and stay? This island is not big enough for all these people
It is quite unfortunate that “Eden” arrived in theaters with very little fanfare (unlike the Baroness) for me: no press releases or screenings. After one week in the theater, it is already reduced to one showing per day when it deserves so much more. The cast is stacked. The story is timeless and still riveting. I considered skipping it until I read the description and realized it was the drama version of “The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden” (2013), an amazing documentary. If you enjoy this film, definitely check out the documentary. Howard’s films are often inspirational and conventional, but here he explores the worst of human behavior without flinching.
Law does not get enough movie work, and here he sinks his teeth into the arrogant man who is in love with his work and would like others to bow to him…from afar. Dr. Ritter is an insufferable man who engages in enlightenment standoffs with Dore and is not above hitting a nerve and bringing her down a peg to soothe himself. His gradual deterioration is almost indiscernible, but it first arrives in the form of jealousy when the plans for the downfall of his neighbors transforms into lush, unlikely success. His physicality is wondrous here: the puffed chest, the self-satisfied grabbing at food as if it is his due and the confident stride as if his steps are sufficient to claim the land. When challenged, he is shaken that he does not measure up and keeps looking for a way to regain his place on the mountaintop.
Kirby is a great actor, and the role of Dore may be one of the few roles worthy of her talents. As confident as Dr. Ritter, Dore is a true believer and perhaps is more zealous. She is proud of defying gender roles and playing life on her terms but mistakes her willingness to shock others with superiority. She suffers from internalized misogyny and underestimates the other women on the island. Dore has multiple sclerosis, and Kirby combines the cane and her pre-Hepburn like worn chic with an imperious air. Kirby’s face is deft at scrutinizing others and flashing her emotion, but her deadpan delivery betrays nothing except contempt. Only her screentime limits her performance.
I’ve only seen Sweeney in “Immaculate” (2024) so now I’m convinced that if she is in a movie, the character is going to give birth to a baby, scream into the camera, whip out a contextual appropriate titty and level up. It is the way. Howard’s camera works overtime in highlighting Margret’s cunning. For instance, it pushes in when Heinz tells her and Henry to go away so she plays innocent but knows exactly what is going on. She uses her gender roles as camouflage for her deviousness, and it is well earned considering (*gestures wildly at everything*). OK, I also saw Sweeney in “Madame Web” (2024), but that movie doesn’t count for anyone.
My kingdom for Brühl’s diary. How does it feel to be the only German on set as an American and British people imitate your accent? In an unexpected twist, he plays an earnest character and considering that he played the one Marvel villain who won, it is a bit of a feat. Heinz is a man retreating from the horrors of war only to discover that opting out of the system has only landed him in the same trap. There is no escape, and out of all the characters, he loses the most innocence. While everyone gets to act big, Brühl has the challenge of showing the light go out of his eyes while his body is a flurry of action. It stuns those around him who only know him as a meek family man and deferential to authority.
de Armas is having a great 2025 even if the box office does not recognize it. Watching her as the Baroness makes it obvious that she should get all of Gal Gadot’s work, especially “Death on the Nile” (2022). Considering how unremitting the island is and teeming with danger and wildlife, the Baroness is a breath of fresh air. Costume designer Kerry Thompson adds splashes of color, warmth and luxury in her styling of the Baroness then the longer that the Baroness stays on the island, the Makeup Department shows how her façade is cracking as her hair and face weathers in the environment. Compared to anyone else, she is put together, but for her, it is a considerable fall. The Baroness constantly assesses Margret, and the best scene reveals the payoff at an evening of music when de Armas reveals how devoid the Baroness is. While showing her appeal, it is a masterful portrait of a demented person.
Cinematographer Mathias Herndl casts a considerable pall on the island ensuring that the audience understands that the title is ironic. He and Howard really hammer home that it is not a paradise with its greys, black and slate blues. The only color comes from a distant erupting volcano across the ocean. Howard deserves an award for catching a lizard eating off a rock then a wave interrupting. The lizard reacts by looking into the camera with annoyance on its face. Howard does some nasty, tense stuff without shying. People do not like to kill kids in movies, but he raises the ante when the Wittmer father and son leave Margret home for a bit. It is spectacularly bad timing that gets worse.
For a bleak movie, “Eden” is kind of fun and nutritious. The story is framed against the backdrop of fascism, fallout from war and economic crisis. Sound familiar? All these people are trying to get away from it all then bring their worst selves to the island. Howard’s movie delivers a powerful lesson that you cannot run away from your problems and will replicate them. No person is without sin.
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
In the end, the conventional practical family wins, and the countercultural people lose. It is roughly a true story though “Eden” probably embellished a lot of details. A sublesson is that there is no need to romanticize anything just stick to the agenda without question: get married, have a baby, be a wise as a serpent and seem harmless as a dove. Make no mistake that Margret is just as bad when pushed against the wall, and no one blames her, but she basically encouraged Dore to poison Fredrich to deflect suspicion off her husband. Her plan works. Is it a thinly veiled pro-Presidon’t message? I don’t think so, but enough people are walking away from the film acting as if Margret did nothing just because she did not get her hands dirty, and that prevalent reading of the story is intriguing. It indicates a sentiment to fairly in this case look down at philosophers (no one wants to talk to philosophy boys) and praise the mainstream. It is more of a colonizer mindset when no one had any business on that island.
