The Eden Theory

I have no idea what I just watched. This movie is not only boring, it makes no sense. What's real? What's imagined? If the film was going for suspense and mystery, it completely missed the mark and landed squarely in absurdity.

I honestly can't tell you what happens in this the last 98 minutes of this movie. After watching a man by himself boarding windows, looking for food and staring blankly into space in a single location for the first 30 minutes, its time to close your browser and move on.

I have to agree with the other reviewer. The first 20 minutes sets you up for what you expect to be something. But it's pointless. This is like imagery, man. A struggle. A conflict. Is it real or hallucinated. A man's struggle against whom? Himself? Or against something else? Or does anyone actually care? I didn't. And it was totally predictable. And silly. Perhaps the limited dialogue also helps to pad running time and limit the need to actually act because it's just weirdness that doesn't make sense... until... you... put... the... pieces... together... oh... so.... easily.... You've seen it dozens of times before but each time, some writer thinks their story adds something special. This doesn't. Make sure you can fast forward.

The first twenty minutes makes no sense, at all, when you get to the rest of the story. A big build up to a big nothing.

There was tension and anxiety building up in the beginning but it went no where.

I am surprised by the response to this film quite frankly. It's clearly a film made on a limited budget and youthful spirit.

I would say that the reviews complaining about the pacing of the scene at the start don't seem to have much patience. I was compelled. A character study of a young man in fear and isolation, terrified and feeling hunted, who over an unknown amount of time retreats into creating a world familiar to him as he tries to make sense of his situation. Then we are taken right out of it and back to his home and a detective asking him questions about his missing friend. We dip into his life and his relationship with his girlfriend and we are wondering if he was responsible for the disappearance of his best friend. There is a real sense of a daze, or a surreal feeling about all this, and the detective seems wilfully to goad him. Is he responsible? How does this detective know so much? Who are these random people in his life who seem to know all about him? Why is he haunted? Guilt?

Without going into this plot, which these geniuses claim to have seen coming a mile off, I was confounded, and if that makes me stupid, then so be it, I'd happily allow the plot to unfold and enjoy it rather than taking it as a competition.

Yes, it is weird, there is tension and anxiety, but it DOES lead somewhere, somewhere I did not expect, and once the penny drops, the true horror unfolds and then the situation of the young lead becomes thrown more into chaos than imagined. As we are told, "Chaos always gets in".

My advice is, just WATCH it for yourself, don't listen to anyone, and just give it a chance. I loved the ending and it really put things into sharp relief. It doesn't give you the ending you expect, but it does give you an answer as to why this young man is behaving the way he is. It's not Spielberg, it's not Uber Hollywood, but it is clever, psychological and makes you consider how much you would retreat into yourself over trauma. I commend the cast, the writing, the direction and for being bold by not being a trope laden or pretentious attention grabber. It's smart, thoughtful and surreal.