Four people gather in a house in the middle of a forest with the intention of dying. that same night: someone has summoned them to take their last supper and commit suicide as a group by inhaling gas. His motives are unknown, as are those of the event organizers. This is the beginning of ‘Edén’, a Spanish film that initially raises many questions that will have you on your toes… until you realize that there is going to be no solution to any of them.
Well nothing, to die
‘Edén’ presents us with an intriguing story in a magnificent location (the Panticosa spa), as modern as it is intriguing, as full of life as it is of death. In fact, as much as he fails in his script, from the technical point of view it is pristineboth in the striking exteriors and in interiors that could well emulate those of a science-fiction movie.
But, alas, as much as the visual bill is great, the actors give it their all and all those involved trust the project one hundred percent, the film never ends beyond its approach, and leaves all doubts in the air. It is magnificent to leave some doubts in the inkwell and enigmas for the audience to discuss and theorize when leaving the cinema, but in the case of ‘Edén’ the strange thing is to find an answer to any of the questions that plague the viewer during its hour and a half of footage.
We will only have some loose pearls: why do a couple of the characters want to kill each other, the way to die… And very little else. Wanting to be cunning and smart, she ends up being frustrating and incomplete.. It is difficult to judge it for what it is and not for what it is not, because it is nothing. It is a dish that we have taken too soon from the oven, a tape that has been too carried away by its own mysterya debut film that could well have been a short film.
the suicide club
The casting elevates the film, yes: although the film supposes a basic error, it is never boringand he always manages to maintain interest in part thanks to a Ramón Barea as splendid as ever and a Marta Nieto who is very sure of the role she is playing, in which you can tell that she had fun playing an egotistical pseudo-villain with a shady past (which we can’t solve either).
‘Eden’ has very good ideas and shocking and overwhelming scenes, but ultimately she is a victim of herself and of an absurd secrecy that leads to its ultimate consequences. He just needed a couple of rivets here and there to stop being a bad Twilight Zone episode, but for some reason he refuses to give them and leaves the entire solution of the film in the hands of the viewerwhich does not have enough data to join the tracks.
If what the film intends is to draw the psychological portrait of these characters, it does not quite hit the nail on the head: they are all so secretive and unpleasant that we never manage to generate any real interest for its past and its (short) future. ‘Edén’ has -I have no doubt about it- very good intentions, but it stays halfway through when it comes time to broadcast them.
Seen and unseen
The tape is perfectly aware of its coldness: the camera moves away from the characters, any act of drama is avoided, there is no clear opinion from the director on any particular issue, and death is not even discussed out loud. But that awareness of hers doesn’t make her good, effective, or powerful: it just makes her aware of a simpleness that wasn’t what she was looking for. ‘Edén’ seeks to open the debate without making the slightest effort to create it.
Between the coldness of the proposal and the little care that is given to a script that, more or less liked by those responsible, asks for answers that never arrive, ‘Eden’ stays in an unoriginal no man’s land that goes around the euthanasia debate but fails to investigate enough to maintain interest or to give an opinion about it. The result is a film that achieves the exact opposite of what it sets out to do: pass without pain or glory and not generate subsequent conversations. a pity