Jude Law, Sydney Sweeney in Ron Howard’s survival photo

It would be entirely understandable that Ron Howard, who has made more than two dozen genre-bending films over six decades, would want to shake things up a bit by venturing into something outside his tried-and-true comfort zone. And it would be equally logical that the vehicle that takes him there would be a demonstrably bizarre-but-true account of a 1920s German philosopher who starts an experimental society with his lover/student on a remote island in the Galápagos, only to see it all implode when opportunists show up and crash the party.

But despite all the fascinating possibilities of the concept and a game, an international cast including Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, Daniel Brühl and Sydney Sweeney, Edenwhich had its world premiere in Toronto, never really gets going. The over-the-top tone that prevails is more cartoonish than satirical, and the long running time highlights the film’s flaws.

The film begins promisingly and describes the life and work of Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Law). In 1929, he flees German society and its bourgeois values ​​to make a new home for himself on the remote island of Floreana. Together with his survivalist Dore Strauch (Kirby), he lives off the limited natural resources.

But the couple’s lonely life is interrupted by the arrival of Heinz Wittmer (Brühl), a World War I veteran with a younger new wife, Margaret (Sweeney), and son, Harry (Jonathan Tittel). They have been following Ritter’s reports, hoping that the country’s pure air might cure Harry’s tuberculosis, just as it apparently kept Strauch’s multiple sclerosis under control. Feeling less than hospitable, Ritter and Strauch glare at the newcomers in their safari shorts and butterfly nets, assuming they won’t make it to the first rain.

But while the family proves surprisingly resilient and builds a home for themselves and their soon-to-be newborn, their life together is once again threatened by the appearance of Baroness Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn (de Armas). Accompanied by a small harem of young men, she intends to build the world’s most exclusive resort on the rocky terrain.

It soon becomes clear that the Baroness, with her long pearl necklace and her hard-to-place accent, which is strongly reminiscent of Anna Delvey’s, is a scheming instigator. She sets the residents against each other, which inevitably leads to a descent into madness.

Despite an inspired structure reminiscent of Werner Herzog’s Gilligan’s IslandHoward and screenwriter Noah Pink (Tetris) make the Queensland-shot film fail in a mishmash of styles. The film is neither satire nor thriller nor crime thriller, it cries out for a sharper attack. It is the kind of story that would have been perfect for people like Mike White, whose extremely devious White Lotus Sensitivity would have been just right here. But although Howard delivers some effective scenes, especially a harrowing scene in which Margaret has to give birth to her own baby, little about Eden feels consistent.

As a result, the performances are just as much a gamble. De Armas does her best in her role as a femme fatale, even if she ultimately lacks the satirical talent of a more experienced character actress to really convince. Meanwhile, Law (so impressive in another TIFF offering, The Order) becomes so tiring as the smug, lecturing Dr. Ritter that when he finally loses his mind, you can’t blame him for wanting to leave.

Only Sweeney manages to retain the viewer’s sympathy and her character’s sanity as the decent pillar of stability that Margaret represents. As the credits and archive footage show, she remained on the island until her death in 2000, and her descendants continue to host tourists at Wittmer Lodge to this day.

Well, that premise sounds more like something that falls within Howard’s purview.