Jude Law stars as a visionary whose utopian experiment descends into control, devotion and danger.
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News
“Hell is other people,” Jean-Paul Sartre famously observed. Ron Howard is here to remind us with his star-studded new film “Eden.” Based on a true story (a 2014 documentary exists), the film depicts a group of people who sought to live in isolation on an island named Floreana in the Galapagos in the wake of WWI during the rise of fascism. Does anybody out there feel like a desert island might be a good place to be right now? Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law) is an eccentric fellow indeed. In addition to writing a new philosophy to exceed and replace all the ones that preceded it, he has had all his teeth removed. To eat, Ritter has metal “chompers” designed by him, giving him the appearance of Kanye West and/or James Bond’s “Jaws.” Ritter’s companion Dore Strauch (Vanessa Kirby) has multiple sclerosis and is semi-mobile. She is under Ritter’s spell and believes he is a genius. Dore has a prized possession, a burro that she loves as if it were her child.
“Life here is gruesome,” says Ritter, who also repeats the mantra, “Life is pain,” which he types on one of the pages he produces every day for his upcoming book. Into the lives of Ritter and Dore come the Wittmers, who have kept up with Ritter’s writings. Unbeknownst to Ritter, German newspapers have made him a celebrity by publishing his letters about his exploits to his friends and relatives.
Heinz Wittmer (Daniel Bruehl), a character out of Kafka, gave up “a good government job” to move his small family to the Galapagos. Heinz’s young wife, Margret (the ubiquitous Sydney Sweeney), who is much younger than Heinz, is a seemingly fragile little flower and out of her depth. Heinz’s preteen son Harry (Jonathan Tittel), the third member of the Wittmer family, has tuberculosis.
Ritter sends the Wittmers to the top of a nearby mountain to live, where there are caves “carved by pirates” with little water. The Wittmers are tormented by insects and wild dogs. But Heinz, who has rifles and ammunition, is a hard worker. He makes a small pool as a receptacle for a tiny trickle of water and begins to build the family a genuine house made of stone and wood. He corrals a local breed of cow for milk. Ships drop by occasionally to leave mail, food and building supplies. But fresh food is hard to come by. The gardens are under constant assault by pests, including boars.
It may not be Eden. But the Ritter household and the Wittmers live in peace. In only one poorly phrased line of dialogue in the screenplay by Noah Pink (“Tetris”), Ritter asks if the Wittmers can “borrow Dore’s ass.” Into this world comes an Austrian serpent named Baroness Eloise Werhborn de Wagner-Bosquet (the equally ubiquitous Ana de Armas), a self-styled aristocrat whose retinue contains two young lovers with whom she romps in the surf upon arrival. The baroness is a type of enchantress whose beauty supposedly casts a spell on those around her. In fact, she is also a complete bore, who tries to sow the seeds of discord between Ritter and the Wittmers. The baroness has a dog named Marquis de Sade and dreams of building a deluxe hotel named Hacienda Paradiso upon the island and attracting the rich and royal to this remote, barely habitable corner of the world.
We are supposed to be spellbound by the irony of it all: the idea of dwelling in a new “Eden” only to find that it is an untamed hell that humans will further degrade with their egos, jealousies, schemes and pettiness. After failing to find water on the beach, the baroness and her armed lovers stake a claim to the Wittmers’ small pool. They spend their days in large tents playing records, noisily making love and eating canned goods. Margret gets pregnant and goes into labor while alone and being attacked by a pack of dogs. In fact, dull, little Margret will emerge as the “alpha female” of the film.
“Eden” is no “Robinson Crusoe,” “Swiss Family Robinson,” or “Cast Away.” Who wants to see Law play a character with no teeth? Perhaps to distract us, Law has buffed up and spends quite a bit of time buck naked. The other characters are, for the most part, types. Dore is a lunatic from the beginning. We tire of her quickly. Sweeney’s German accent isn’t terrible. Following a not particularly acclaimed performance in “Ballerina,” de Armas does not make much out of the baroness. We come to admire Margret and Heinz. But it is not enough to make up for how much we hate the others.
‘Eden’
Rating: R for some strong violence, sexual content, graphic nudity and language.
Cast: Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney, Daniel Bruehl
Director: Ron Howard
Writer: Noah Pink
Running time: 2 hours, 9 minutes
Where to Watch: In theaters
Grade: B-
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