Ron Howard’s new film EDEN oddly doesn’t feel much like a Ron Howard movie, and I’m not quite sure why. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just doesn’t carry a distinct authorial voice, despite being built on a story that’s almost too strange to be true.
At its center is Dr. Ritter (Jude Law), a writer and philosopher, who flees the trauma of post–World War II life with his ailing wife Dore (Vanessa Kirby). Their plan? To carve out a new existence in the Galapagos Islands, far from the chaos of civilization, and to share their enlightened discoveries with the world. But as Ritter sends his musings back to the mainland, others take notice and suddenly his Eden is no longer exclusive.
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First to arrive are German defector Heinz Wittmer (Daniel Brühl), his wife Margret (Sydney Sweeney), and Heinz’s son Harry (Jonathan Tittel). Ritter, who views himself as gatekeeper of this paradise, sends them up a mountain with little hospitality, expecting they’ll crumble and leave. They don’t. In fact, the Wittmers adapt and thrive.
Then comes the Baroness (Ana de Armas), whose title is entirely self-proclaimed. She sweeps ashore with a mini-court in tow: boyfriend Rudolph (Felix Kammerer), his loyal friend Robert (Toby Wallace), and an Italian architect named Manuel (Ignacio Gasparini). Expecting to be welcomed as nobility, she instead finds Ritter’s chilly disdain. From there, Ritter stokes rivalries between the Baroness’s camp and the Wittmers, sparking a chain of deception, betrayal, and eventual tragedy.
It’s a fascinating story precisely because it’s true, drawn from two dueling first-hand accounts by participants whose versions of events clash. That unreliable tension buoys the film, along with an impressive ensemble. Jude Law delivers a sinister, domineering Ritter, Ana de Armas is frighteningly unhinged as the Baroness, and Sydney Sweeney surprises with a layered, empathetic performance that quietly steals scenes. She sinks her teeth into one particular sequence with a raw intensity that proves she’s not just the bombshell audiences want to make her out to be.
Howard captures the beauty and brutality of the Galapagos; lush yet merciless, crawling with insects, prowled by wild dogs, and laced with danger at every turn. You can’t help but ask: Who in their right mind would want to live here? And yet the draw of escape, the dream of reinvention, makes a strange kind of sense.
The film never tips into farce, though it easily could have with such colorful characters. Instead, it remains a raw character study about delusion, power, and the fragility of human ideals. If this were pure fiction, it might feel too unbelievable, but knowing it happened makes it all the more riveting, a train wreck you can’t look away from.
EDEN may not bear Ron Howard’s usual cinematic fingerprints, but it’s proof that the more things change, the more people stay the same. Human nature, with all its selfishness, pettiness, and blind hope, hasn’t evolved much at all.
Eden opens in theaters on August 22, 2025.
