Eden Review

Eden Review

A couple days back Regal, AMC, and Cinemark had their secret movie screening. I was able to check it out and it was the latest film from Ron Howard, Eden with a star studded cast with Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, Daniel Brühl, and Sydney Sweeney. This is one that I was looking forward to based on the premise, director, and the cast. How is this movie? Is it any good? Let’s get started! 

The Good

For me the best thing about this film was that it actually kind of surprised me with what it was about. I saw the trailer for the film but didn’t really remember it. I didn’t realize the film was based on a true story. I thought the film was going in a more supernatural direction but it didn’t because it’s based on a true story that’s set after World War 1. The fact that it is based on a true story makes the film even crazier as at points it’s a bit hard to believe that this actually happened. If you don’t know what this film is about, it’s set after World War 1 where three groups of people, two families and a baroness are on this island and use their views and beliefs about capitalism and facism to make sure they’re the list ones left on this island. It’s this very engaging thriller that keeps you guessing from beginning to end. It’s this film where you’re constantly changing perspectives on what you think about certain characters. Throughout the film all of them are trying to earn people’s trust while also trying to ruin friendships between other people. All of them are trying to make sure that they're the last ones left on the island. It’s based on a true story set after World War 1 and it was relevant then and in the year 2025 with the current political climate it’s still relevant. Before the movie started, Ron Howard introduced the film (via video not in person) and he basically said what I just said about it being relevant. As you're watching the film there’s so many ways in which he’s right. Without spoiling anything the way that the movie ends is so relevant today. When the credits roll it shows footage from the real life events and tells you what happened to these characters after the events of the film. One of the characters in the movie wrote a book telling their perspective on the events of the film. This character that I mentioned is the book that the movie is following and that person’s perspective on what happened. But another character from the movie wrote about what happened from their perspective and that story isn’t told here. When you know all of this information about what really happened it makes the film as a whole more interesting. You want to hear the different perspectives on this story. 

Part of the reason why the film is able to work so well is that you have a legendary director like Ron Howard at the helm. It’s a different and interesting film for him to cover because most of his films have a certain level of optimism and hopefulness to them and this movie doesn’t have that. If I didn’t know that Ron Howard directed the film, I wouldn’t have guessed that it was him. It’s still pretty cool that when he’s 71 years old he’s still willing to do very different things that are wildly different from anything else that he’s done before. He’s able to find the tension and the dread in so many sequences. The stand out sequence here involves Sydney Sweeney giving birth that is maybe the most intense birthing sequence I’ve ever seen in a film. That’s going to be one of the most memorable scenes of the year. There’s so many moments whether you have all of the characters together or each group is off doing their own thing. There's tension because all of them are in danger from the other characters. When you mix this interesting premise with a world class director like Ron Howard you get a very thoughtful and engaging film that puts you on the edge of your seat at so many points in time. 

The other thing you have to talk about with the film is the cast and performances. Everybody here is pretty fantastic and a lot of them are delivering career best performances. The two ones that I’ve heard a lot of people talk about as the stand outs are Ana de Armas and Sydney Sweeney. Both of them are obviously some of the more popular actresses of the last five years. Both of them aren’t giving the types of performance you’d expect from them. Ana de Armas is playing the film’s antagonist, her character is designed to be the most flamboyant and lively character on the island. She’s the one that pops and stands out the most and she’s clearly having a lot of fun in this movie. She’s able to be this despicable and cruel character while also having this movie star charm about. She’s one of my favorite actresses working today and this continues that streak and shows that she has a lot of range. Sweeney is playing a mother in the film and I appreciated her character more as the film went along. I wasn’t sure what to think about her or her character for the first half of the film. Once the birthing scene happens and especially as you move into the third act she gets her moments and once again the best that she’s been. She’s holding her own against multiple Oscar nominated actors including Jude Law who’s been acting longer than she’s been alive. Speaking of Jude Law, he’s another very fun character in this film. He’s the smartest character on the island, he’s a doctor. He’s able to portray that so well mixed with him being this very weird and quirky guy especially with the ways that he interacts with his wife, Vanessa Kirby in the film. Like I said, everybody in here is doing really well and there’s not an obvious weak link in the cast. 

Finally, to my surprise Eden has one of the best scores of the year. As the film was going, I didn’t know who composed it but was thinking that the score was fantastic and captivating. The credits roll and it says the music is by Hans Zimmer and I  immediately went “well that explains it”. Of course, Zimmer is one of the best film composers of all time. This is another fantastic score from him that swells as the right moments and makes you feel the emotions that you’re supposed to feel. Between this film and F1, Zimmer is having a great year in terms of composing scores. Both of them are some of my favorites of the year and I honestly don’t know which one I like more. 

The Bad

It’s a bit tricky to talk about my issues with the film without spoiling anything. But the film can have some predictable moments that were foreshadowed very early on in the film. It’s just with certain lines that a character says that’s a bit too on the nose that you know that something about what they’re saying is going to tie back later on. Once again, without spoiling anything but there’s a few things they do with Daniel Brühl’s character 60%-70% of the way through the film that as soon as something happens I had a good idea as to what was going to happen next and I was pretty much right. I think it was specifically with some of the dialogue and conversations in the first half of the film that felt like they were telegraphing things. Part of the frustration with the predictable aspect about it is that in order for certain things to happen the film needs to write certain characters to be a bit stupid. Had the characters been written smarter with more than the predictable stuff wouldn’t have played out the way they did. This was most apparently around the 60%-70% mark of the film where there’s some big twists and turns that shake things up in some major ways. 

Another issue with the script is its ways of writing the male and female characters. This is probably one of the hardest parts to fully talk about without spoiling anything. But after a certain big event happens in the second half of the film (the same event I keep mentioning, if you’ve seen the film you know what I’m talking about) and it felt like after that film was trying to explore themes and ideas about female empowerment (which I’m all for) but I didn’t feel the film earned those moments or its exploration of those ideas. I think there could’ve been this interesting way that the film explored these ideas. It made the final resolution in the film a bit weird because the film didn’t properly set it up. I touched on this earlier but I thought that Sydney Sweeney’s character got better and more interesting in the second half. The second half is really where she gets her moments to shine. I think if she’d been more prominent in the first half I think the final resolution and the female empowerment themes would’ve hit more and been a more logical next step in the film. 

Finally, despite the film only being 2 hours and 9 minutes long it still felt like the film would’ve been shorter. Even when you factor in the kids which are longer because there’s also footage from the real life events, the film is under two hours but felt 5-10 minutes longer than it should’ve been. The length is frustrating because I’m not sure what you could've cut. The film has a bit of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King ending where there’s a few points where I thought to myself “I guess is the final scene” and it keeps on going or “I guess we’re winding down now…and there’s still one more scene after that.” All of the scenes were important, none of them were bad but I wish the film was structured differently. 

Final Thoughts: Eden is one of the most interesting and thought provoking films of the year. It’s a film that keeps you engaged from beginning to end. The themes and what it’s exploring was relevant back in the day and is still super relevant in 2025. This is a film that’s going to polarize people. I checked Twitter to see the different reactions to the film and they’re all over the place. Some people are really liking the film, others are disappointed and frustrated by the film. I’m right there in the middle, there’s a lot that I enjoyed but a number of things that left me frustrated.  

The Score: 8.1/10 (B-)