For the last few years especially, Ron Howard seems to be fascinated by bringing true stories to the screen. Whether that comes in the form of fictionalized retelling of actual events, like Rush, In the Heart of the Sea, Thirteen Lives, and yes unfortunately, Hillbilly Elegy, or frequently shifting his focus to documentaries like The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years, the José Andrés-focused We Feed People, or this year’s Jim Henson Idea Man. But while many of these show the resilience of what humanity is capable of, or those who make the world a better place, his latest true story, Eden, couldn’t be further from that. In fact, in his half-century as a director, Howard has yet to make a film quite as dark as Eden, a wild shift for a director that often relies on hope and the beauty of humanity. For a director like Howard, whose work can sometimes be a bit too sterile, Eden is a curious experiment in search of a purpose.

What Is ‘Eden’ About?
Jude Law is Dr. Friedrich Ritter, who left 1920s Germany with his partner Dora Strauch (Vanessa Kirby) in order to start a new way of living on the island of Floreana in the Galápagos. The doctor plans on writing his manifesto for his way of life, as Dora attempts to cure her multiple sclerosis via meditation. However, their life alone on the island is interrupted when they’re joined by Heinz Wittmer (Daniel Brühl), his wife Margaret (Sydney Sweeney), and their son Harry (Jonathan Tittel), who are also looking for a way out of their life and took the doctor’s lead. However, the real wrench in this island life comes in Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn (Ana de Armas), who joins the island with her two male companions (Felix Kammerer and Toby Wallace) and has plans to turn this island home into a vacation paradise, with plans to build an exclusive resort for the wealthy. With these three different groups on the island, the harsh island living is no match for the conflicts that start to arise from what each of these groups wants from their new way of living.

In setting up this new paradise, Howard, working with a script by Noah Pink, takes his time building this world and the dynamics of this slow-growing island community, and at times, this can be a bit of a slog. At one point, Law’s Dr. Ritter is working on his book, and gets stuck on the sentence, “Our purpose is…” and it feels like Howard and Pink are also in search of finding a purpose, beyond Howard’s excitement over this bonkers story. It’s an important construction that the second half certainly needs, but the muted cinematography by Mathias Herndl and the day-to-day machinations often feel in need of some direction.

But it’s in the second half where Howard truly finds his groove, embracing the darkness with a violent, pulpy direction that feels like Howard attempting to push himself in a way we haven’t seen in quite some time. After all these years, it is exciting to see Howard attempting material so unlike anything he’s done before, and it’s a tone that looks good on the veteran director. From a horrifying medical emergency to fights that go further than are expected, Howard is playing with a new set of tools, and it’s almost cathartic in a way, not just for the viewer, but for Howard to let loose after staying in a certain box for so long.

‘Eden’ Works Because of Its Excellent Ensemble Cast
Image via TIFF

Eden is also an opportunity to have a lot of beautiful actors doing really fun work in performances unlike we’ve seen from them. The biggest delight here is Ana de Armas as the deceptive Baroness, who is threatening to destroy this new paradise, but whose entire life is built on a series of lies. What at first seems like a somewhat vapid character soon becomes a master manipulator who knows how to play everyone off each other by using every tool at her disposal. Also quite good in a more reserved performance is Sweeney as Margaret, who has voiced concern over coming to this island with her husband, and tries to make the best of it. Sweeney’s arc might be the most intriguing, as we watch her take command over this situation in her own way, the quiet person in the background who puts the pieces together before acting. Sweeney gets one incredibly harrowing scene where she must suffer through a medical emergency, while fighting off all manner of other threats. It’s a great showcase for her ability to knock it out of the park with big, emotionally and physically draining scenes.

Yet it’s when Eden has these factions clashing that the film is at its dark best, where Jude Law, who is probably losing it, faces Brühl’s war vet, and de Armas’ army of lovers. How these allegiances shift and change over time is quite a bit of fun, and every character has such a unique perspective on their situation that it’s hard to believe such rich characters actually existed. Eden lives or dies by its ensemble, and Howard found a great blend of actors to each bring something new to this wild ride.

‘Eden’ Proves Ron Howard Should Take More Chances
But for as much fun as Eden does eventually become, it’s still a mostly uneven thriller that doesn’t really take off until it embraces its darkness. While Eden seems to be attempting a story that shows normal people (well, 1920s Germans who decided to live on a desert island) fighting against fascism after running away from the world, that mostly gets lost to dive into the more base desires of these characters. Like many of Howard’s most recent narrative films, Eden just feels like a cool story that Howard wanted to retell, much like how Thirteen Lives was Howard simply turning the documentary The Rescue into a narrative feature while barely diverting from the source material. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Howard following stories that he has a definite passion for, but it can often feel like a recitation of a cool story rather than having a larger point.

That being said, it’s great to see Howard branch out in this way and push himself into the darkness in a way that feels entirely different from his other work. Hopefully, this is the beginning of further attempts at trying something new for Howard, as experimentation is a great look for him, and not just an outlier in his filmography. With a great cast and an intriguing story that he’s passionate about, Howard could do great things with this new tone. Let’s just hope he finds a purpose for his next dark tale.

Eden had its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Fesival.