Eden: The Ship of Fools Goes to a Galápagos Island... And What Happened There Turned Out To Be an Incredible... and True... Story

February 2026

 

Ron Howard made a movie with full frontal male nudity?

 

Well... I didn’t see that coming...

 

So...

 

Now I know more about Jude Law than I ever expected...

 

And even though Eden has Sydney Sweeney...

It has been languishing on Amazon Prime for a while...

 

And it took me a while to bite...

And I am famously not discriminating...

 

Because the trailer made it look like Lord of the Flies set in the Galápagos ...

 

Which it is...

 

But I didn’t have to pay extra to rent it...

And winter nights are long...

 

And Ron Howard did not disappoint...

 

So I’m not sure why this film has received so little buzz...

 

Especially since it has Sweeney... who is hot right now...

 

In more ways than one...

 

But maybe this film’s low profile...

 

Is because she is barely recognizable...

 

As a mousy German housewife...

 

Where once again her affect in this film is as flat as Kansas...

 

Now... if you have seen Euphoria and that scene with Sweeney on the carousel..

You know the girl can emote...

 

But in Eden...

She is expressionless throughout the film...

 

Except when she is having a baby while being attacked by wild dogs...

And simultaneously being robbed of all her food ...

By the boy toys of the “Baroness”...

The villainess of this film...

 

Who is played with such elan by Ana de Armas...

That she dominates this movie...

 

But in a way, Sweeney’s character, Margret Wittmer...

Is the most interesting in this film...

 

Which is based on a truly amazing story...

 

That includes a doctor who imagines himself a “philosopher”...

A sort of George Soros without money...

Who spends all day on his typewriter working on his magnum opus...

 

His partner played by Vanessa Kirby...

Who is maybe a little too fond of her donkey...

 

And Margret’s husband...

Who dragged his wife and son out of Depression Germany...

To this desolate island because he bought Dr. Ritter’s nonsense...

About creating a utopia there...

 

And then the Baroness shows up... and the fun begins...

 

Now life on Floreana is hard...

 

Really hard...

 

But Margret and her husband...

Are industrious...

And up to the task...

 

In ways the others are not...

 

So, of course, everyone tries to steal from them ...

 

But Marget proves to be a steely character...

 

And so in Eden...

 

Sweeney’s flat affect serves her portrayal of Margret well...

Because you never know what that woman is thinking...

Or, more importantly...

What she is going to do ...

 

So Howard has made an interesting film...

 

About the problems of surviving in this harsh climate...

With a Ship of Fools cast of characters...

 

And when you read the postscript at the end of the film...

You realize who was the most clever of them all...

 

And the fact that this is a true story makes it even more compelling...

 

Especially since it involved several murders...

 

But what I found the most fascinating about the story told in Eden...

 

Which BTW...

Floreana was anything but...

 

Which is the reason why this film gave me a better understanding...

Of why the Galápagos Islands were where ...

Darwin came up with the idea of the survival of the fittest...

 

Because on Floreana it was strongest human who did survive...

And lived there until they died at age 96...

 

But the traits that enabled that survival....

Are what made this movie surprising...

 

So hat’s off to Howard...

 

For finding ... and filming...

 

Such an interesting ...and true story...                                                      

 

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