Eden’ Review: A Shocking Thriller That Will Leave You Speechless

Eden review Ron Howard's historical Thriller strandes on an island with characters who grow more dislikable by the minute Ron Howard has always taken pride in being an Eclectic filmmaker in the last 40 years he has made movies about mermaids cocoons Auto factories astronauts firefighters newspapers Beautiful Minds cave Rescuers the Grinch The Da Vinci Code The Beatles and pavara but at the Toronto Film Festival premier of his latest movie Eden he declared that the film stands farther apart from his other work than anything he has ever done Eden which is based on events that unfolded 100 years ago on one of the Galapagos Islands is a difficult movie to characterize for Howard the film sure is different it has sex murder and animal Slaughter while there's no denying that Howard has made the ultimate movie not in his wheelhouse what's most different about it isn't The Eccentric subject matter it's that Howard got so immersed in the subject so possessed by it so lost in it that he forgot to do what he can usually do in his sleep tell a relatable story from the outset we're nagged by the question if the characters are historically based and real then why do they feel so hopped up and synthetic Jude Law who I just saw give what may be the best performance of his career as an FBI agent in the order here descends into hone Tut tonic surliness is free red Ritter a German physician who has turned his back on society to go to the isolated Green Island of floriana in the southern part of ecuad Galapagos archipelago that's what Howard and his screenwriter Noah pink never figured out Hines Whitmer Daniel brw and his wife Margaret Sydney Sweeney have come to floriana because they've been following accounts of the ritters and want to join their movement you'd think a communal theorist like Ritter would welcome these disciples but no he just wants them to go away he doesn't exactly roll out the welcome shrub and it's not as if there's some dramatic connection between the two couples Howard has said that he based Eden on two conflicting accounts of the events it depicts and that's how it plays as a film that never locates a point of identification then a mystery player shows up yet another Island visitor though this one has a very different agenda her Margaret is humble and likable and though she has to go through a childbirth scene that's all but designed to make a squirm you feel something for her Howard should have worked harder to ensure that the audience was invested in these people from the beginning but I can't imagine that there will be much of an audience for Eden a movie that makes you want to get off that island and go back to a place where the people are sayane [Music]