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The Garden of Eden

2008
R
1h 51m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Mena Suvari, Caterina Murino, and Jack Huston in The Garden of Eden (2008)

Based on Ernest Hemingway's final novel and set in the jazz age, a successful young American writer and his beautiful wife on their extended honeymoon in Europe.

A young American writer completes his service in WWI and travels across Europe with his wife and her attractive Italian girlfriend. Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway.

Director
- John Irvin
Writers
- James Scott Linville
- Ernest Hemingway
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

STREAMING

Videos1

Trailer 2:15

Hemingway’s Garden of Eden

Photos240

+ 235

SPONSORED

Top Cast28

Jack Huston

David Bourne

Mena Suvari

Catherine Hill Bourne

Caterina Murino

Marita

Carmen Maura

Madame Aurol

Richard E. Grant

Col. Philip Boyle

Matthew Modine

David’s Father

Mathias Koie Levi Palsvig

Young David
(as Mathias Palsvig)

Héctor Tomás

Patrice
(as Hector Tomas)

Dritan Biba

Waiter

Luis Callejo

Monsieur Jean

Álvaro Roig

Vladimir
(as Alvaro Roig)

Yaël Belicha

Girl Onlooker
(as Yael Belicha)

María Miguel

Nina
(as Maria Miguel)

Igacio Gijon Solis

Ritz Waiter

Enrique Zaldua

Waiter #2
(as Enrique Zoldua)

Lola Peno

Rotund Woman

Alejandro Arroyo

Man in Crowd

Lucy Hunt

Girl At Party

Director
- John Irvin
Writers
- James Scott Linville
- Ernest Hemingway
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

User reviews19

5.31.3K

Featured reviews

1raerae-62681

Couldn’t get past the first 12 minutes

First off, that god awful wig they made Mena wear, looked like a mud helmet. You could see the wig netting come down her forehead a full inch. The makeup on her and the dress for when she first met David…just bad. Hair and wardrobe should be fired. Then you have the horrible lines and the way they were delivered. Had to stop watching after 12 minutes.

1Before2020

Atrocious acting

What a boring story and the acting is so bad that it’s hard to focus. Useless irritating characters, just wanted them all to fall of a cliff so the movie could end.

6d_art

Movie Review: ‘Hemingway’s Garden of Eden’

Based on a posthumously released novel written by Ernest Hemingway, Garden of Eden takes place prior to the Great Depression, during the Jazz age, following a successful young American writer, David Bourne (Jack Houston), and his new bride, Catherine (Mena Suvari), a rich heiress, who are on an extended honeymoon in Europe. During the honeymoon, Catherine starts to get restless and begins playing bizarre mind games with David, testing his devotion. To David’s discomfort, she persuades him to role play in the bedroom, with her as the boy and him as the girl. Things get stranger when Catherine develops a relationship with an Italian girl, Marita (Caterina Murino), and brings her to him as a “present”, even suggesting they take turns being David’s wife.

Directed by John Irvin (Hamburger Hill, Dogs of War), this film is more character-driven than plot-driven. There is much sex going on, focusing on the strange love triangle between David, Catherine, and Marita. The focus and the pace of the film changes noticeably when it moves on to David’s past memories of his father, an elephant hunter in Africa. These memories, which are quite out of place from the rest of the film, become material for David’s new book.

This film is beautiful to look at. It is a period film–the mood, clothing, and environments recreate the early part of the 20th century in fine detail, soft sepia filters, and a pastel color scheme. There’s an impressive tracking shot in the beginning of an outdoor banquet, of rich folks raising their glasses in slow motion. We soon see a naked lady being filmed at a picnic, re-enacting Manet’s “The Luncheon on the Grass”. Small moments like these amusingly portrays a certain mindset of this particular society. Advertisement

It the film, David Bourne appears to be Hemingway’s alter ego. While Jack Huston looks like the young Hemingway, his character is far from the heavy-drinking, macho guy the famous author was known for. He is constantly pushed around by the neurotic Catherine, whom he is always trying to please, which becomes increasingly hard to do. Catherine has some amount of disdain for David’s work and becomes jealous when Marita admits to having read his transcript. Throughout the film, David half-jokingly calls Catherine “Devil.”

Admittedly, the characters here are not very engaging. Jack Houston does what he can with his role, but his character never feels like a whole person. Mena Suvari has a meatier role as Catherine, who brings much intensity to the film. However, we never quite know why she acts the way she does and her dialogue feels stilted. Caterina Murino (Casino Royale) is competent as Marita, despite the character’s lack of complexity.

Given the title of the film, Garden of Eden, a reference to the Bible, one might say David represents Adam and Cartherine represents Eve. Perhaps the theme speaks about a picture-perfect couple who are tempted toward a wrong way. In this film, though, it appears to be mostly Catherine who brings things down for them. Or, it could just be that Catherine is actually the serpent (as David called her “Devil.”) bringing Marita (Catherine’s “present”) as the fruit to tempt David to fall. It is indicated that Catherine wants to share her “sin” (Marita) with David to feel less guilty about her extramarital relationship with Marita.

One wonders if Hemingway could be using Catherine to represent certain attitudes within radical feminism. The film also touches upon morality and class. Catherine says something along the lines of “we are not like normal people–we can live our life however we want.” Given that this film was based on an incomplete novel, it is hard to say what Hemingway really wanted to say, or if he had a particular message. It could just be a character study. As it is, the film feels uneven and the characters are not very engaging. Perhaps it is meant to be read as a novel and not seen as a film.

More of my movie review updates can be found at http://twitter.com/d_art

10classydriver12

Superb

This film is excellent, even though there is quite a lot of nudity. The photography is absolutely stunning and mesmerising, particularly scenes in Africa and by the quayside. The acting is excellent and all in all this is a fantastic film. Not for the faint-hearted, though.

The sets for this film were devised especially and the hotel built for the purpose of the story.

The ending has been changed for the American market but hopefully will be back to the original for the British and European markets. Perhaps in 2011 this film will be released for these areas to view. It is such a shame it has taken so long to be released, having been completed in 2008.

5Geff

Hemingway’s (?) last and unfinished novel

As someone who has studied and taught Hemingway for 40 years and read all his works, countless times, I think the main question here is what would Hemingway himself think of the way he is portrayed in this film. Remember please that someone else finished and edited the entire novel. So can you say it was written by Hemingway? What would he himself think about this work, which was so important to him that he worked on it for decades, and could never get it right enough to finish it. I think he would be enraged and feel betrayed by those who rewrote his work. Hemingway was so unique as a person with a true gift for saying so very much in so very few words, and so unique as a person who had deep human needs coupled with a fearlessness possessed by few, that I dare anyone to copy his style successfully. I have done that over the years, and I’ve never seen anyone succeed. So finishing the novel, and editing the entire work by another or others, is a fraud to call it a Hemingway novel or film based on it.

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Did you know

TriviaThis is the fiftieth adaptation of an Ernest Hemmingway story.

GoofsThe typewriter Catherine buys for David has a QWERTZ keyboard. This keyboard is common in German-speaking parts of Europe, but is not used in France where the movie takes place.