‘Eden’ Review: Sydney Sweeney Steals the Show in Ron Howard’s Darkly Silly Historical Thriller

Director Ron Howard has always been a fascinating filmmaker. He’s delivered some of the most entertaining American films ever made, like “Apollo 13,” as well as complete and total disasters, like “Hillbilly Elegy.” That makes “Eden,” a solid yet darkly silly historical thriller set on a remote uninhabited island in the Galápagos, such a breath of fresh air. It’s not his greatest work, but it’s still the type of film that you exhale upon seeing as you realize he’s still got some heaters.

Though built around an excellent ensemble cast of Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby and Ana de Armas, it’s Sydney Sweeney who runs away with the whole thing. She doesn’t always give the loudest performance of the bunch, though it’s her subtle looks and a growing agency that turns “Eden” into something more. Also, if you thought you would never again see a movie where Sweeney plays a character going through the most hellish pregnancy imaginable after this year’s magnificent horror “Immaculate,” think again. This and every moment with her at the forefront is “Eden” at its best.

The film, which premiered Saturday at the Toronto International Film Festival and is based on true events, takes place in 1929 where people are still reeling from WWI and questioning what it is that has consumed the world. Two of them, Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Law) and his partner Dora Strauch (Kirby), flee to the isle of Floreana. Friedrich aims to write the manifesto to save the world and while she hopes to heal from her multiple sclerosis by meditating, but that is soon upended by a family that has followed them. Margaret (Sweeney) and her husband Heinz Wittmer (Daniel Brühl), along with their ailing son, go to the island in the hope of joining the good doctor in living a life free from violence where they can build their own utopia. What they discover is a brutish, uncaring man who wants to be left alone to write and a harsh climate that could destroy them. 

Even when they manage to survive, more visitors soon come that again threaten the delicate balance on the island. Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn (de Armas), whose entrance is the first hint of the film’s sly sense of humor, intends to make a hotel there despite how inhospitable it all is. As the seasons pass, tensions begin to hit a breaking point, leaving these neighbors to discover what values they really hold, what they’ll be willing to toss aside and who they’re capable of hurting so they can continue to remain alive.   

Any other details about who turns on who and what they inflict upon each other is best left unsaid as revealing anything more would rob the experience of the film’s full punch. The way that writer Noah Pink, best known for last year’s “Tetris,” expertly ratchets up the tension demonstrates a refreshing degree of patience and a playful sense of humor. Some of this comes down to how the entire cast is going for it with Law’s frightening Friedrich striking an imposing figure without any teeth (which he delusionally removed himself). As he grows increasingly menacing and insecure, we see that he is no insightful philosopher, but a pitiful man ranting to nobody. 

Indeed, one of the best gags comes early when we hear his droning internal monologue interrupted by Margaret, who cheerfully comes to visit and ask him questions. Sweeney, long an underestimated performer despite how in command of her characters she is, hits all the right notes to make these small moments sing.

Though de Armas is certainly giving the most goofy performance and doing it quite well, Sweeney is the film’s soul. If anything, the moments when Margaret fades into the background leave a void. We’re often left with Brühl, who is the one performer that can’t quite find his footing. This could be by design, as the way everything ties together makes clear Sweeney was actually the center of “Eden” all along, but it still holds the film back from being as great as it could be.

These are small hang-ups that can’t fully take away from what is still a solid thriller from top to bottom. When Sweeney blows the doors off the film with one critical scene near the end, it only makes you want to watch it all back again to take a closer look — this performance has layers. When you do, in addition to seeing that there was no paradise to be found for most of the people who tried to make a go of it on the island, you see the one truly in real command was also the one that was the most overlooked.

If Howard and Sweeney can make movies together like this all the time, may neither of them ever stop.