Title – Eden (2024)

Director – Ron Howard (Apollo 13)

Cast – Jude Law, Sydney Sweeney, Daniel Brühl, Vanessa Kirby, Ana de Armas

Plot – Based on true events, follows the lives of a group of European outsiders who venture to the Galapagos Islands in search of solitude and a new way of life pre-WW2. Their potential peace and tranquillity is short-lived however when a battle for survival takes hold.  

“To those that dare to dream!”

Review by Eddie on 06/11/2025

Based off an intriguing true story, directed by a multi-Oscar winning screen legend, loaded with more A-listers than you can poke an iguana at and featuring a score from beloved composer Hans Zimmer, for all intents and purposes Eden should have been a notable home run.

The end result is the equivalent of a barely there bunt.

Early on proposed to be a potential awards contender, Howard’s $50+ million dollar based on a true story exploration of a group of European settlers who set up home on the unforgiving and remote Floreana Island located in the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador is such a colossal letdown that it’s hard to know who to blame or where to point a finger at the most glaring faults but there’s no mistaking that considering all the talent and opportunities available to Eden, this is one of the year’s most notable duds.

Barely making a ripple on the global scene after lacklustre festival showings and reviews, before unceremoniously finding its way onto Amazon Prime, Eden is a sad shell of a once promising offering and one that continues on a cold run for Howard on the back of overwrought awards baiter Hillbilly Elegy and his gun for hire job on Solo: A Star Wars Story, with 2013 the last time the director showed real signs of life with his well-liked F1 drama Rush.

As unfocused of a film I’ve seen Howard turn in across his long-standing career, Eden struggles badly to find its beating heart as we’re introduced to an array of characters that are calling the island home with Jude Law’s toothless and sometimes clothes free Dr. Ritter, Sydney Sweeney’s dedicated mum/wife Margaret and Anna de Armas’s demanding baroness the films most notable presences that are supported by the likes of Daniel Brühl, Vanessa Kirby and Australian acting heavyweights Richard Roxburgh and Toby Wallace who no doubt enjoyed the films shoot on the picturesque Gold Coast.

Documenting the trials and tribulations of these sometimes friends more so enemies as they try and tame the lands they have decided to call home, deal with tensions that arise between them in various forms and also class warfare showing the worst of humanity and sometimes the best, there’s so many possibilities and juicy narrative ores for Eden to mine but Howard and his writing partner Noah Pink are unable to do any of them justice with the cast trying their hardest to make up for the lacking material but being held back themselves by some of the worst German accents you’re going to come across from a Hollywood production.

Usually, I try very hard to judge a film on its merits and perhaps if Eden wasn’t laced with so much proven talent and wasn’t armed with all the tools needed to make something even slightly more enjoyable than this there would be more grace given but for a film of this ilk to be so uninteresting, uninvolving and instantly forgettable, there has to be a punishment worthy of the crimes.

Final Say –

There’s a universe where Ron Howard’s Eden was a dramatic tension riddled masterpiece shining a light on the human condition and its many flaws but as it stands the Eden we have at our fingertips is a sad and sorry misfire from a big time Hollywood filmmaker who has lost his sense of purpose and craftsmanship.

1 toothless smile out of 5