Mark Edlitz's The Eden Myth

* 1/2 (out of 4)

From it's "don't tell any secrets" marketing campaign, The Eden Myth bears a passing resemblance to Angels & Insects, Philip and Belinda Haas' far superior portrait of Victorian society gone to rot. Eden takes place in the present day, but the twists and revelations are pretty much the same. Relax, this review is not going to blow the surprises of either movie for you. All we're saying is, if you appreciated the delicate subtlety of Angels, you may grow quickly frustrated with the ham-fisted, plodding, altogether obvious devices in Eden.

Writer-Director Mark Edlitz, a former assistant to David Mamet, crafts the story of Vincent (Gil Rogers), the elder patriarch of a dysfunctional, if affluent, family. On a weekend sojourn, his son Aldo (Justin Kirk, Love! Valour! Compassion!) visits with his other nasty siblings. There are obscure, cryptic references to some public announcement involving the family. As it turns out, Vincent announces Aldo's marriage to a mysterious woman he has never met before. Vincent's gregarious assurances that this will be a perfect coupling only underline the dread of being forced to make decisions you don't want to make, but the situation feels artificial. Edlitz has prescribed the scenario so thoroughly as not to allow for naturalistic behavior. This is a mystery for the wax museum.

Elditz has a controlled visual approach that could become assured if he continues to make films, eschewing the predictable MTV flash and whiplash jitters and hasty cuts of his generation. It never really takes any chances cinematically, which perhaps explains the humdrum tone. Justin Kirk is credible as the decent young man in over his head, upstaging the larger than life Gil Rogers with some canny underacting.

The real problem is the quality of the writing, which never layers the surprise. Angels and Insects was a spider's web of visual and thematic clues that led inevitably and surprisingly toward a point of no return. Elditz only allows for some knuckleheaded dialogue that dances around the revelation so closely, it'd be difficult to miss. Viewers who catch the bull's eye as to what this flick is about will probably become bored and shut it off long before that moment of truth.

This film was released as part of the First Rites screening series, currently available through Hollywood Video. Considering their product, The Eden Myth actually comes off as one of the more intriguing films in the series. As derivative as its premise is, it's one cut above morons with guns pulling off the perfect heist. I mean, aren't you sick of the movie where two guys in a bar say to each other, "Women…" or, alternately, "Think about it…Ten Grand, split two ways…" You know what I'm talking about.

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