These are precarious times in Hollywood. It’s become such a risk-averse industry that not even “golden boy” Ron Howard can find distribution for his latest film, “Eden.”
“Eden” had its world premiere at TIFF in September where it was met with mixed reviews; I liked it for the guilty pleasure that it is, and I thought it was, far and away, the darkest and bleakest film of Howard’s career. The cast of “Eden” includes some top names such as Sydney Sweeney, Ana de Armas, Jude Law, and Vanessa Kirby.
So far, no distributor has dared touch “Eden,” which comes only two years after Amazon/MGM dumped Howard’s well-received “Thirteen Lives" to streaming. Howard, who wowed Oscar voters with “Apollo 13,” “A Beautiful Mind,” and “Frost/Nixon,” hasn’t had a critical or commercial hit since 2013’s “Rush.” Has Howard’s stock crumbled?
Howard and screenwriter Noah Pink set their film in 1930’s Floreana, a then-uninhabited island in the Galapagos. During the start of Hitler’s rise to power, a German couple, Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law) and his wife Dora (Vanessa Kirby), escape from the chaos, abandon civilization and permanently settle down on the island.
Word soon spreads of the mysterious Ritter in European newspapers, and that leads to Heinz Wittmer (Daniel Brühl), young bride Margaret (Sydney Sweeney) and their son Harry (Jonathan Tittel) arriving on the island; They too want to escape the fascism building up in their country.
“Eden” is driven by great talent; De Armas, a total scene stealer, might be best in show as the repulsive, manipulating and spoiled baroness who, with the help of her two male servants, attempts to take over the island by trying to turn it into a resort hotspot. This rubs Wittmer and Ritter the wrong way, and together they plot to get rid of her.
Alliances get forged, sex partners get swapped, and ridiculous threats get dished out. Everybody hates everybody. Howard depicts the worst of humanity in “Eden,” which, at times, reminded me of an episode of “Survivor,” only set at the dawn on WWII. It’s even more surprising to learn that the film is actually based on a true story.
“Eden,” which Vulture claimed was further proof that “Howard had lost his mind,” is an unusually dark film, but one that would play like gangbusters for a streaming audience, whether on Netflix or Amazon.
“Hope,” Na’s first film in ten years — his last one being the exemplary “The Wailing” —is a gloriously messy, blood-soaked sci-fi epic that may become a cult classic despite—or because of—its polarizing nature.