EDEN – Review by T.J. Callahan
Eden: “ What were you expecting, paradise?”
*To the tune from Gilligan’s Island*
Just sit right back and watch this tale,
The tale of a fateful trip
That took a doctor to Galapagos
Looking for better statesmanship.
The castaway was there to write,
A new philosophy on life.
Joining him were a baroness
And another man and his wife. Boy, did that bring on the strife.
Tempers started heating up,
Peaceful farming life became rough,
Hunger does a number on you
Even if you think you’re tough. Island life isn’t kid stuff.
Eden is Gilligan’s Island meets Lord of the Flies. Based on “those who survived”, the Ron Howard film is the true story of Dr. Friedrich Ritter and his partner, Dore Strauch, who settled on Floreana Island in the Galapagos to live a better life alone, foraging for themselves while escaping the collapsing economy of WWI Germany. Ritter’s letters home soon became glamorized by the press encouraging others to join “Paradise”. He was the first influencer without meaning to be.
But the new community was far from Utopia.
Jude Law stars as Ritter with Vanessa Kirby as his ailing partner Dore. Sydney Sweeney ditches the jeans for prairie dresses as housefrau Margret, wife of Heinz, played by Daniel Bruehl. Ana de Armas rounds out the academy award nominee cast as the very Ginger Grant-like Baroness Eloise. They all make this Robinson Crusoe real life psychological thriller more interesting as we watch the castaways become shadows of their former selves in more ways than one.
There’s something about a Ron Howard film that always enthralls even when it’s borderline campy. Eden is a rated R uninhabited island soap opera that’s shocking, brutal, erotic and tends to show humans’ true colors…even with the best intentions. It rises to a 6.5 on the TeejFlixometer. Stay through the first credits for photos of the real pioneers.
