EDEN (2025) - Mark Reviews Movies

Eden, Vertical

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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 21, 2025

Ron Howard doesn't generally make cynical movies. Even the ones with touches of skepticism about humanity or certain elements of society have some kind of positive spin on them. That means the director's Eden, about a group of people revealing their truest natures on a remote island, is quite the departure for the filmmaker, but it also makes the movie one that doesn't live up to its full, unflinchingly bleak potential.

To be clear, this is a story that should make us despair, because nothing about it says anything good about people. By the end, not a single character here is worthy of much or any sympathy, save for a child and a baby, neither of whom could comprehend or be blamed for the terrible deeds of the adults surrounding them.

Howard understands this, obviously, and so, too, does screenwriter Noah Pink, working off the real-life experiences of a group of people who separately moved to and lived on Floreana Island in the Galápagos during the late 1920s and early '30s. What ultimately happened to several of them has been a mystery ever since. Pink's version of events certainly seems sound, even if the movie is played at such a high volume and with such manufactured intensity that it sometimes feels like drama of the soapy variety.

The first arrivals on Floreana are Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law) and Dore Strauch (Vanessa Kirby), who are romantic partners—if anything about their relationship can be described as such—but not, as the two are quick to point out, married. The two left Germany in 1929, after they noticed and feared the rise of fascism in their homeland. Ritter wants some peace and quiet to write a philosophical tome that will hopefully "save humanity from itself," while Dore, who has multiple sclerosis, hopes the change in climate and calm surroundings will help cure her condition.

Word of the couple's self-exile from civilization spreads, mostly thanks to Ritter's self-promotion, and that brings fellow German expats Heinz (Daniel Brühl) and Margret Wittmer (Sydney Sweeney), along with their pre-teen son Harry (Jonathan Tittel), to Floreana. They are also escaping the now-certain rise of the Nazis. Even though they hope to find some camaraderie with the pair already on the island, Ritter leaves the family to fend for themselves entirely, only pointing them in the direction of a nearby cave.

There is one more group to come to the island. They're led by Baroness Eloise Wehbrborn de Wagner-Bosquet (Ana de Armas), who has grand plans to build an exclusive hotel for millionaires on Floreana. She's accompanied by Rudolph (Felix Kammerer), an engineer, and Robert (Toby Wallace), her bodyguard, but the three seem to spend more time enjoying each other's company than constructing a hotel.

On the surface, this setup is intriguing. It puts forth three different parties, each with different worldviews and motives for being in this place, and watches as the façade of social mores slips, collapses, and reveals itself to be little more than a veil to cover up that these people are deeply suspicious and assume the worst of each other.

Is that true of all of them? There's a subtle point to be explored here, since so much of what happens on the island is defined by Ritter, his outlook, and his behavior. He is a cynic, after all, writing a treatise about how life is pain and suffering, the inherent cruelty of humankind, and trying to find some meaning in those perceived truths. The Wittmers, on the other hand, seem perfectly polite and, if they had anything beyond some canned food, surely would be accommodating. Is their isolation a revelation of who they really are or simply a reflection of how Ritter treated them upon their arrival?

Such little details might be important, especially since the story is, at its core, ostensibly a debate about the nature of humanity when the trappings of civilization are gone. The arrival of the Baroness and her entourage, however, transforms the entire movie into something else—a bigger and brasher sort of melodrama about secret plans, betrayals, and efforts to set these parties against each other.

In a way, one can't blame Howard for falling into this bolder mode, since de Armas' presence as the boisterously hedonistic Baroness consumes everything around the actress. For their parts, Law and Kirby are also playing broad caricatures, as well, but the sudden focus on conflict and the Baroness' scheming only sharpens the edges of those portrayals. Only Brühl and Sweeney, who struggles with an accent, feel like real people within the dynamic on the island. Even they're subject, though, to the sometimes over-the-top material, such as when Margret has to give birth alone and surrounded by wild dogs looking for an easy kill and meal.

To be clear, this doesn't mean the movie fails in its aims. It only means that Eden is inconsistent, in terms of tone and how its finer points about human nature are routinely swallowed up by the melodramatic elements. The central idea remains fascinating, and Pink's interpretation of what might have happened here, when the clash between these conflicting personalities and worldviews came to a head, makes sense. If the point of the movie is to dramatize what happened on Floreana, it kind of succeeds, but as for creating a convincing portrayal of why it happened, it doesn't.

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