EDEN ***

 Perhaps the biggest and best surprise of the year so far and the last thing I might have expected from Ron Howard, "Eden" is fact-based although I knew nothing of the original story which naturally helped my appreciation. In 1929 the German philosopher Dr. Friedrich Ritter and his partner Dore Strauch moved to the uninhabited island of Floreana in the Galapagos where he planned to write his masterpiece on the state of the world and how he could 'heal' humanity. 

He claimed he needed and wanted solitude yet he sent letters back on passing ships building up a reputation as a visionary living in the wilderness and developing something of a following. Before long he was joined on the island by Heinz Wittmer, his wife Margaret who got pregnant there, and their son Harry. Needless to say they were not welcomed with open arms. In 1932 Ritter, Strauch and the Wittmers were joined by the so-called 'Baroness' von Wagner Bosquet and her three male companions. She planned to build a luxury hotel there and soon claimed the island for herself triggering a virtual war between the inhabitants.

Unlike previous Howard films "Eden" is both truly strange and beautiful and doesn't shy away from the horrors of life in something considerably less than a paradise. Was it madness that drove these people to act as they did or the environment or was it the environment that drove them to madness? If the film is to be believed both Ritter and the Baroness were already delusional before coming to the island and although the Wittmer's motives were questionable at least it was they and they alone who seemed to possess 'the pioneering spirit'.

Howard certainly handles difficult material with a genuine commitment and the film is superbly shot by Mathias Herndl but it's the cast who carry it. Jude Law makes for a grim and dangerous Ritter and Vanessa Kirby is suitably volatile as Strauch but it's Ana de Armas as the Baroness and in particular Sydney Sweeney as Margaret Wittmer who really own the film. They are both terrific with de Armas proving to be terrifyingly unstable and Sweeney being remarkably resolute in her resolve to do whatever she can to keep her family alive, (the scene in which she gives birth is the most frightening thing I've seen all year). "Eden" may not be an easy watch but it would be shameful if it doesn't get the recognition it deserves.