Ron Howard’s Darkly Funny Adult ‘Lord of the Flies’ – ryan

Editor’s Note: This Review was original published During the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Vertical releasses “Eden” in theaters Friday, August 22, 2025.

Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law) is Loath to Repeat Anyone Else, SO HIS Writer’s Block Finds Him Spitting out Quotes from Bigger, Better, Far More Well-Known Philosophers, He Knows Ares Going Badly. Things have, in fact, ben going badly for a Very long time, as is property to openwene anyone to an uninhabited island and Attempts to Carve Out a New World Order. Still, Had Friedrich-A Very Real Person-Been a bit more comfortable with the idea of ​​repeating someone Else, he likes the found plenty of comfort in jean-sartre’s prepecient observation that “hell is oter people.”

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Easy's Waltz

Such is the thrust of ron howard’s darkly funny “eden,” a fact-bassed story that follows what happened after friedrich and his partner hand Strauch that Wold Lead to World War II) In Search of a Very Different Way of Living, Only to Find that they Simply Can’t Shake the Tent to Make Society so Unbearable (Read: Other People). Frederich Likes to Act as if he’s above it all, but at a certin point, he starts section out missing to the outside worble the paradise he and hand have created, so they shouldn’t be deplete Surprised when People Start Showing Up, Seeking a Similar Life.

Oh, but are the Ever. Frederich’s dream is to, by His Own Admision, “Save Humanity,” But the furtate he got in that process was to mov away from the entity world at his typewriter, Dreaming up nonsense philosophy he’s completely (and hilariously) unable to him. While he and hand (who has ms, which they try to clear with meditation, sex, and hard living) have Carved out a bit of a living on Floreana, Its Precarious by Every Measure. “Everything on this island can kill you” Dora tels their newest Visitors, and It’a spreads the true thing anyone Says Throughout Noah Pink’s Clever Screenplay.

Those New Visitors? The Wittmer Family: Father Heinz (Daniel Bruhl), Second Wife Margret (Sydney Sweeney, Who Get of A Go-For-Broke Sequence in this Film), and Ill Son Harry (Jonathan Tittel). The family has been enthralled by what they they have read in the german papers of Friedrich and Dora’s adventures, and they want in. They Show up in kicky Little Camp Clothes, Ting Butterfly Nets, Starry-Eyed at the Whole Affair. Friedrich and Dora Promptly more say up the hill to a notoriously infertile slice of the Island – Dora’s Beloved Burro Helps, and that Will Be the lace TIME THAGE HAPPENS – AND EXPect they’ll abandon the which affair in Weeks. They Don’t.

Eden
‘Eden’Courtesy TIFF

Things are Already Feeling “Lord of the Flies” -y Enough Already, but with a distinctly adult bent and plenty of utexpped humor, and that “baroness” eloise bosquet de wagner wehrhorn (Ana de armas, a screen in a casted with stand. Delusional Big Talk About Building The World’s Most Luxurious Hotel (for Millionires Only!), Most of it Helped Along Mightily Be Her Dedicated Cadre of Maningists and Lovers (Including Felix and Toby Wallace). On an Island Filished with Blinked People (and that’s Being Geneverous), Eloise is Queen. Well, that’s the plan.

As she starts pulling strings between her friend and neighbors – all of it both obivious and understandable, and truly entertaining Enough that you’ll laugh LOUD LAW PROCLAIMS “Deus ex Machina!” at a full twist that is precisely that – Eden collapse. “Eden” does not. Howard and His Stacked Cast KEEP The Entire Thing Chugging Right Along Toward the Inevitable, and That’s That Doesn’t Feel So Expective, If Only Because of How Damn Funny This Trip to HELL Feels.

A Certain Amout of Creative License Helps – Goodness Knows, No One on Floreana Loked Quite Good As they are Coming undone in increasingly Dark Manners – nor Occsionally Bloodless Drama Like a whiff. Listen, for a movie in Which Sydney Sweeney Fights off a Pack of Feral Dogs while giving Birth by HersselfThings Could (and Maybe Should) Feel a Lot more fucked up than what we get in “Eden.”

But what we will get from Howard’s Latest is a Strong Reminder of His Handle on Not Just Craft and Casting, but Also Story and Tone. No movie about the utter demise of a suppotate utopia – a real one, to boot! – and the utter infallibility of human beings should be this fun, but we’re swing this one is. It helps the hard trits go down easier, especally about who we all are as People (you know, hellish).

Grad: b

“Eden” Premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Vertical Releasses The Film Friday, August 22, 2025.

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