TIFF Review: ‘Eden’ Showcases the Price of Survival in Ambitious Historical Drama

Law and order work in most cases for two reasons: people genuinely want to be good, and those who don’t still fear the consequences that will come from failing to adhere. In a newly-settled land with very few occupants, no such forces exist to enforce the latter, and just how good the people are depends on what they see as their future and how important it is for them to prosper – at anyone else’s expense. Ron Howard’s Eden tells a dark tale of humanity and inhumanity far from civilization, and the lengths people will go to in order to establish control.

In the early 1930s, Heinz Wittmer (Daniel Brühl) arrives to Floreana, one of the Galápagos Islands, with his wife Margaret (Sydney Sweeney) and son Harry (Jonathan Tittel), inspired by the journey of Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law) and Dora Strauch (Vanessa Kirby), who have abandoned an increasingly fascist German society so Friedrich can write about his plan to save the world. When they get there, the Wittmers are greeted with hostility by a couple that seems determined to get them to leave, and things only get worse when Baroness Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn (Ana de Armas) shows up with an entourage and ideas of building a luxury hotel on the shore.

Eden is a fascinating specimen in concept. Its opening title card indicates that it is based on the accounts of the survivors, foreshadowing a grim and deadly narrative that might as well be the setup for a horror film where creatures of the night devour unsuspecting settlers. But, in actuality, it’s something far more fearsome, which is the human capability for selfishness and betrayal. While much is certainly invented and based on the perspective of one person whose stories cannot possibly be corroborated, certainly not this long after the fact, it’s not all that difficult to imagine these events happening as they’re portrayed here.

While this is very much an ensemble piece, Margaret becomes its protagonist since she is the most levelheaded and forward-thinking of the group, comprehending that it’s necessary to break bread with enemies when they’re literally your neighbors and aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Heinz fumes when the Baroness shows up with an alleged gift of food that comes from the stockpile he’s well aware she stole from their home just days earlier, but Margaret knows that rebuking the Baroness is a far graver mistake. As the saying goes, with friends like these, who needs enemies?

Howard is an extremely capable director whose vision comes through here in a film reminiscent of the Oscar-shortlisted Estonian epic Truth and Justice and last year’s Oscar-nominated Society of the Snow. The climate of Floreana means that weather conditions are not especially harsh and, while there are wild dogs wandering the island, there’s no native population hunting the settlers. Yet there is still a viciousness to this land that Howard manages to visually and emotionally portray well, affected most not by nature but by nurture, and the way in which so few of the island’s already minimal inhabitants choose to work together for the common good that Friedrich’s writings might have originally inspired.

The cast speaks English with German accents that aren’t always convincing, but each manages to craft a specific character with different motivations and resolve. Sweeney’s performance is the most enduring, tying the film together and rooted in understatement, while Kirby exhibits a sincere and biting distaste for all those around her and Law portrays Friedrich as someone so consumed by his own brilliance that he’s lost sight of his true goals. De Armas hams up the Baroness’ twisted charms, sometimes making her feel like out of an entirely different world and movie. Not everything works in Eden, an immersive experience populated by such despicable people that seem so motivated by self-sabotage that it’s difficult to connect with their journey.

Movie Rating: 6/10

Awards Buzz: This cast does have a great track record with awards, with past Oscar nominations for Law, de Armas, and Kirby, a near Oscar miss for Brühl, and twin Emmy nominations for Sweeney, not to mention Howard’s Best Director Oscar win for A Beautiful Mind. But will this film really win over voters?