Ron Howard’s 53rd directorial effort, Eden, is based on the true story of a group of European idealists who moved to a remote, uninhabited island in the South Pacific, circa 1929, in order to 1) escape encroaching fascism and 2) start a brand-new civilization dedicated to “saving humanity from itself.”
Things did not exactly go swimmingly for the experiment, as a 2013 documentary on the same subject, titled The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden, points out. The doc—directed by Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine—combines the real-life writings of settler Dr. Friedrich Ritter and the home movies he shot with his partner, Dore Strauch. Ritter and Strauch’s number-one goal, as a pair of German intellectuals in the 1930s, was to get away from Adolf Hitler.
“Getting away from Hitler” may have a familiar ring to it for 2025 stateside audiences. The Ritters devote their time to quasi-political philosophical posturing, broken up by therapeutic sex. The new immigrants who follow them to Floreana Island have different agendas. Cue discontented campers among the iguanas and wild boars.
Filmmaker Howard, never one to shy away from vigorous action in exotic settings (Thirteen Lives, Rush), takes an already pulpy story and makes it even gaudier (Howard wrote the screenplay with Noah Pink), starring Jude Law as Dr. Ritter and Vanessa Kirby as the equally free-thinking Strauch. Ritter is a pompous academic who references Nietzsche and belittles his partner’s “arts and crafts” efforts to set up housekeeping in the inhospitable landscape.
Poised against them are some other newcomers, a family of earnest, truth-seeking Germans attracted to the island by newspaper reports: Heinz Wittmer (Daniel Brühl), his plucky wife Margret (American actor Sydney Sweeney) and their son. Margret is a dutiful hausfrau whose still waters run very deep; hard-working Heinz is as flamboyant as a plate of mashed potatoes.
The chief nemesis of all of the above is the self-styled “Baroness Eloise” (Ana de Armas), a classic femme fatale with a scandalous pedigree—picture a combination of Imelda Marcos and Cruella De Vil—fond of proclaiming to her mirror image: “I am the embodiment of perfection.” Soon after arriving on the beach to Wagnerian fanfare, the Baroness declares her intention to build a luxurious tourist resort on Floreana, from scratch. Thirty minutes in, Eden looks like a case of aging hippie farmers against delusional Coachella-style revelers. Everyone has a rifle. The scene is set for mayhem.
Howard’s filmography is crowded with grandiose yet emotionally uncomplicated stories—tales of astronauts, firefighters, hard-luck prizefighters, 19th-century whalers, disgraced U.S. presidents, rebellious mathematicians, rough-edged men and women of the Old West, and a generous helping of Tom Hanks vehicles. The sort of movies AMPAS enjoys giving Oscars to.
As a director of agreeable middle-of-the-road entertainment, he’s come a long way since Grand Theft Auto (1977). And yet Howard’s characters can still slug it out like Roger Corman when the job is dirty and violent enough. Eden shows us the Ron Howard who’s not afraid to get down to the basic “animal instincts” that Professor Ritter and his fellow settlers display in the payoff scenes.
The ham-and-cheese-sandwich prize goes to Ana de Armas for her no-turning-back performance as the Baroness, would-be empress of the Galapagos. When she isn’t sneering down her nose at the dumfounded other colonists, the former “Bond Girl” specializes in uproarious hoochie-coochie with her harem of hired studs, alternating with ordinary gluttony and careless gunplay.
Compared to the Baroness’ silly sexpot shenanigans, Kirby’s Dore and Sweeney’s Margret resemble Dust Bowl refugees, sweaty and exhausted by endless toil in the service of a socially constructed dream of enlightened utopia, however unattainable.
Sweeney in particular deserves a spotlight. Her Margret Wittmer is the Mother Courage of the piece, diligent and unwavering, even under duress. Eden makes a strong argument for the female determinant in such rousing accounts of nonconformity. Hooray for blood-and-guts Darwinism!
Playing at multiple theaters in Silicon Valley.
