Skip to main content

A Coarse and Meagre Eden

Honestly, sometimes -especially of late- the idea of leaving the world behind to live on an isolated island and write a manifesto on how much society sucks sounds pretty appealing. It is not a good idea. But evidently it is what German Friedrich Ritter did in 1929 with his wife Dora, who both lived on the uninhabited Floreana Island in the Galapagos archipelago for three years before their solitude was interrupted by newcomers, some looking to do the same, some with their own designs on the island. What happened to the small collective on this island, which was conspicuously reduced by 1933, is a curious mystery that has never been definitively ascertained -even by those who did survive and whose descendants continue to live there.
Ron Howard’s fascination with the madness of isolation and survival in the south Pacific was glimpsed in In the Heart of the Sea, his mostly forgettable film from ten years ago about the shipwreck that possibly inspired Moby Dick; and Eden -his and screenwriter Noah Pink’s interpretation of the Floreana settlers- shows those themes have not left him. And yet while he offers up a good deal more cynicism in this context than is usual for him, he doesn’t appear to have anything more to say about these subjects -something especially apparent in the direction conceived for this version of the story.
His entry-point are the Wittmers, more specifically Margret (Sydney Sweeney), the young new wife of the older Heinz (Daniel Brühl), a follower of Ritter's disillusioned by the spread of fascism in Germany and seeking the same life. They and Heinz's son Harry (Jonathan Tittel) rather irritate Friedrich (Jude Law) and Dora (Vanessa Kirby); and their private Eden is only further sullied by the arrival of the excessively conceited self-proclaimed Baroness Eloise (Ana de Armas), along with her retinue and two lovers, there to lay the foundation for a grand exotic hotel.
Brühl's German accent appears to be what everyone else in the movie is endeavouring to imitate, to varying degrees of success (Austrian Felix Kammerer as Rudy, Eloise's more sympathetic consort has the most, de Armas has by far the least). Sweeney and Kirby struggle to maintain it and it does have an adverse effect on their performances as a result. Law on the other hand, pushes through it and leans into the annoyed mad philosopher, whose interpretations of societal evils -though having grains of truth- are mocked by the movie's framing; especially in light of his inability to commit to his grand manifesto, which Dora ardently believes in as a future world-changing text akin to the Bible. Obviously Eloise, as avatar of that materialist bourgeois order that is the antithesis to all Friedrich believes, is the open and humouring skeptic. But Howard and Pink have even less love for her -pampered and hedonistic, and insidiously deceitful. When a pregnant Margret goes into labour while Heinz and Harry are off hunting, and wild dogs threaten both her and the baby, Eloise feigns absence, concerned only with the success of her men's discreet theft of the Wittmers' canned food -hers having run out and she being unwilling to eat anything native to the island.
In spite of how obnoxiously villainous and shallow the characterization for Eloise is, the movie’s perspective is very much one of flagrant ‘both sides-ism’ when it comes to the ideological factions -Eloise’s being positioned as exploitative and cruel, while Friedrich’s is just ridiculous. Though even this script has a hard time selling that on the basis of Friedrich’s theories alone, so he has to be made into a fraud -willing to give up his vegetarianism on a whim just out of envy for Heinz being a more effective hunter or becoming preoccupied with revenge against Eloise over concentrating in any capacity on his work -and occasionally being callous towards Dora as well. In addition to the dishonesty, it is just poorly manufactured conflict that hardly justifies where it all ends up. The crisis does need to be between the human characters, and Howard does a better job emphasizing the little points of contention that can grow. And some of the tension is played very well, such as the psychological grooming Eloise does to Harry, or Rudy’s disillusionment with sexually sharing Eloise with the more loyal Robert (Toby Wallace). But the ideological battle becomes less potent the more the adversarial parties become cartoon representations of their viewpoints -as though Howard and Pink know no other way to build to violence.
And as far as the madness of isolation as a contributing factor, it doesn’t much play a part. This is not the same kind of survival story as In the Heart of the Sea -where people are struggling to live completely alone and ill-equipped for the harshness of an island with no contact to the outside world. Rather, each party here has their own set of resources brought along and they are known by public interest back home to be on Floreana -on a couple occasions even receiving visitors. The eerie effect of the elements thus has less of an impact. With everybody knowing how to get there, it is almost already the vacation destination Eloise hopes to turn it into.
There is a lot of great thematic potential here, and especially with the real story of what happened to several of these people still a mystery that no survivor or scholar has ever been able to fully settle. The title Eden evokes Biblical connotations of a new beginning of civilization, or what Friedrich and Dora intend to make the island for them -but of course it is tinged in a cynical irony towards human nature -a fundamental belief in our inability to get along under difficult circumstances. It's Lord of the Flies but with adults. And while there is room for serious exploration and perspective here, this movie doesn't have the capacity for them; a shame given how compelled Howard clearly is by the material.
But certain choices really do feel antithetical to that objective, primarily the overt characterizations of Friedrich and Eloise turning the conflict into broad ideological battle. The script opines for some more meaningful conceit, but the drama feels in practice more akin to an early interpersonal episode of Lost. Eden has a good cast though often poorly utilized, some moments of solidly conveyed tension, and Howard's direction certainly makes good use of mood and space. But the approach taken to the story and themes is patently underwhelming -a thrilling concept squandered.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Disney's Mulan, Cultural Appropriation, and Exploitation

I’m late on this one I know. I wasn’t willing to spend thirty bucks back in September for a movie experience I knew was going to be far poorer than if I had paid half that at a theatre. So I waited for it to hit streaming for free to give it a shot. In the meantime I heard that it wasn’t very good, but I remained determined not to skip it entirely, partly out of sympathy for director Niki Caro and partly out of morbid curiosity. Disney’s live-action Mulan  I was actually mildly looking forward to early in the year in spite of my well-documented distaste for this series of creative dead zones by the most powerful media conglomerate on earth. Mulan  was never one of Disney’s classics, a movie extremely of its time in its “girl power” gender politics and with a decidedly American take on ancient Chinese mythology. It got by on a couple good songs and a strong lead, but it was a movie that could be improved upon, and this new version looked like it had the potential to do that, em...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Subtle Sensitivity of the Cinema of Wong Kar-wai

When I think of Wong Kar-wai, I think of nighttime and neon lights, I think of the image of lonely people sitting in cafes or bars as the world passes behind them, mere flashes of movement; I think of love and quiet, sombre heartbreak, the sensuality that exists between people but is rarely fully or openly expressed. Mostly I think of the mood of melancholy, yet how this can be beautiful, colourful, inspiring even. A feeling of gloominess at the complexity of messy human relationships, though tinged with an unmitigated joy in the sensation of that feeling. And a warmth, generated by light and colour, that cuts through to the solitude of our very soul. This isn’t a broadly definitive quality of Wong’s body of work -certainly it isn’t so much true of his martial arts films Ashes of Time  and The Grandmaster. But those most affectionate movies on my memory: Chungking Express , Fallen Angels , Happy Together , 2046 , of course  In the Mood for Love , and even My Blueberry Nig...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Prince of Egypt: The Humanized Exodus

Moses and the story of the Exodus is one of the most influential mythologies of world history. It’s a centrepoint of the Abrahamic religions, and has directly influenced the society, culture, values, and laws of many civilizations. Not to mention, it’s a very powerful story, and one that unsurprisingly continues to resonate incredibly across the globe. In western culture, the story of Moses has been retold dozens of times in various mediums, most recognizably in the last century through film. And these adaptations have ranged from the iconic: Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments;  to the infamous: Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings . But everyone seems to forget the one movie between those two that I’d argue has them both beat. As perhaps the best telling of one of the most influential stories of all time, I feel people don’t talk about The Prince of Egypt  nearly enough. The 1998 animated epic from DreamWorks is a breathtakingly stunning, concise but compelling, ...
Post a Comment
Read more