Toronto Film Festival: Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney, and Ana de Armas Battle for Dominance on a Remote Island in Ron Howard’s Unraveling Survival Drama

At this year's Toronto Film Festival, Ron Howard's latest project, Eden, sets a star-studded cast — Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney, and Ana de Armas — against each other on a desolate island in a 1930s-set true story. What begins as a promising tale of survival soon spirals into a series of tiresomely silly twists and over-the-top reversals.

Ron Howard is typically known for his polished, award-friendly dramas like A Beautiful Mind or Apollo 13, and for his reliably constructed blockbuster fare, such as The Da Vinci Code. His body of work rarely delves into the depths of true darkness, and his All-American, wholesome persona doesn’t make him an obvious fit for a brutal story about the lengths people will go to for their desires.

For a brief moment, however, Eden almost convinces us otherwise. The film, inspired by a true story Howard encountered while on a family trip to the Galapagos Islands, navigates the audience through a tense descent into chaos. Howard enlisted screenwriter Noah Pink, who previously worked on Tetris, to bring this cutthroat tale to life, centering on a battle for supremacy over an uninhabited island paradise.

The story begins in the 1920s as Germany falls into fascism. Ambitious doctor Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law) and his wife, Dore Strauch (Vanessa Kirby), seek refuge on Floreana Island, hoping to create a new way of life free from religion and conventional values. Their writings gain attention in European newspapers and salons, prompting a German couple (Daniel Brühl and Sydney Sweeney) to join them, believing the island’s isolation might cure their son’s tuberculosis. Things take a darker turn with the arrival of Baroness Eloise (Ana de Armas), an eccentric aristocrat with plans to build a lavish hotel, accompanied by her three man-servants.

What follows is a slow-burn drama reminiscent of Agatha Christie, with various parties vying for control of the island and clashing over their divergent visions. While the initial simmer of tension is compelling, it quickly boils over into melodrama. De Armas's Baroness Eloise feels more like a cartoonish villain, her character undermined by exaggeratedly sinister dialogue that lacks subtlety.

Vanessa Kirby’s sharp delivery of cutting one-liners is underutilized, and as the plot unfolds, it devolves into a chaotic mess of backstabbing and survival tactics. Despite some intense performances — including a fully naked and toothless Jude Law — the film suffers from a repetitive storyline and over-the-top sequences that verge on the absurd.

While there are moments of shocking violence that push Howard beyond his usual boundaries, the film ultimately feels too farcical for the audience to remain invested in the characters' fates. By the time the film reaches its somber coda, detailing the real-life fates of its characters, the story has already lost its momentum. Howard’s attempt at exploring the darker side of human nature, though bold, ends up feeling like a misstep.