EDEN (AMAZON PRIME) (2025)

SYNOPSIS: Eden is a provocative and surprising survival thriller about the lengths we will go to in pursuit of happiness. Based on two wildly different takes on the same true story, Eden explores one of the longest-standing and most compelling unsolved human mysteries ever, where eight people went to a remote island in the Galapagos and less than half survived.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Based on a true survival story set on the isolated Floreana Island, Eden marks Ron Howard’s most “mature” movie to date. Though no stranger to adapting real-life events for the screen (see Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, and more recently Thirteen Lives), Eden is filled with enough nudity and sensationalism to set itself apart from the rest of Howard’s past work.

In 1929, Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law) and Dore Strauch (Vanessa Kirby) flee their native Germany for the Galápagos, hoping to escape civilisation. Ritter devotes his time to writing a new philosophy book while Dore, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, tends to their garden and her beloved donkey.

Their isolation is soon disrupted by the arrival of the Wittmer family (Daniel Brühl and Sydney Sweeney), seeking refuge from the looming war and hoping to nurse their sick son back to health. Worse still is the later appearance of a spoiled, flirty baroness, Eloise von Wagner-Bousquet (Ana de Armas), accompanied by her two toy boys, Robert (Toby Wallace) and Rudolph (Felix Kammerer), with grand plans to build a luxurious hotel for the rich on the island.

Eden isn’t just a plain old survival drama. Howard and his co-writer, Noah Pink, infuse the plot with dark psychological conflict, greed, and bursts of violence or at least a fraction of what they seem to be aiming for. Ritter despises both the Wittmers and the baroness. He wants them gone, ASAP. Yet after pushing the Wittmers toward a more barren part of the island, he discovers that they ultimately thrive better than he does. Meanwhile, the baroness and her boys behave like the worst of humanity: indulging in wild sex, stealing canned food, and leeching off everyone else like parasites on this far-flung patch of Earth.

To keep things lively, Howard throws in plenty of conflict, characters playing mind games and pitting themselves against one another though the sometimes campy tone undercuts the tension. Still, the performances shouldn’t be overlooked. Sweeney is a surprise standout as Margret, a seemingly simple woman who proves to be the one with determination, intelligence and grit to survive. A harrowing childbirth sequence may be the film’s highlight.

Ritter himself is a complex figure starting out idealistic before becoming the very human he detests. Law is at his natural best, spouting philosophies and even baring all in one prolonged scene. Ana de Armas delivers sultry aristocratic flair with such ease and charisma that you may wish her character had a film of her own.

Eden is by no means a bad movie. Despite running slightly over two hours, it never feels dull or draggy thanks to Howard’s steady craftsmanship. Still, it could have gone much darker and reached a more satisfying conclusion instead of relying on convenient storytelling. Did all the knife fights and murders actually occur? The true mystery remains unsolved. Eden ultimately becomes yet another Hollywood fantasy “based on a true story.”

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee