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Hemingway's Garden of Eden

Play trailer Poster for Hemingway's Garden of Eden R Released Dec 10, 2010 1h 51m Drama Romance Play Trailer Watchlist
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4% Tomatometer 24 Reviews 22% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
During an extended honeymoon in Europe, a restless wife (Mena Suvari) tests her husband's (Jack Huston) devotion by inviting a sultry Italian woman into their inner circle.
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Hemingway's Garden of Eden

Hemingway's Garden of Eden

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Critics Consensus

Garden of Eden dramatizes Ernest Hemingway's clipped storytelling without carrying over the intelligence that undergirded the author's writing, yielding a thin drama full of artifice and no feeling.

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Critics Reviews

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Keith Uhlich Time Out An overly bookish dissection of romance, gender and obsession. Rated: 2/5 May 19, 2023 Full Review Jesse Cataldo Slant Magazine In this Riviera vacation atmosphere, all sun, sand, and skin, the dialectic of opposites the film attempts to enforce instead melts down to little more than kinky foreplay. Rated: 1.5/4 Dec 18, 2010 Full Review Cary Darling Dallas Morning News It just seems like a bunch of actors playing dress-up. Rated: 2/5 Dec 10, 2010 Full Review Brian Orndorf BrianOrndorf.com Sex has never felt more repellent after watching Eden, a clumsy effort of eroticism and psychological gamesmanship that's utterly devoid of structure and feeling. It's an awful picture. Rated: D- Mar 14, 2011 Full Review Kimberly Gadette Indie Movies Online The question that occurs is not whether director Irvin hates actors but rather, how much. We can imagine him shouting to the cast: 'Once more, with less feeling. Get shallow! Can't you do worse than that?' Rated: 1/10 Jan 7, 2011 Full Review Robert Levin Critic's Notebook A soft-core, Jazz Age skin flick masquerading as high art. Rated: 1.5/4 Dec 14, 2010 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Al S I thought the film was lovely to watch and that it reminded me of Hemingway's style in how the personal conflicts developed among its characters. The three main character's attractiveness is reason alone to watch this film. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/01/25 Full Review Audience Member Solid cast and good directing. A fair take on the Hemingway novel, but the characters and their motivations seemed thin. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/09/23 Full Review Audience Member hmmm another lost review-don't know why I bother Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member An intriguing Hemingway adaption. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/16/23 Full Review Audience Member A writer and his wife take up with an Italian woman, and the three form an odd love triangle filled with lust and temptation. Garden of Eden confuses me. I haven't read the novel, but after the film, I want to. From what I can tell from the film, it seems like a first draft -- ideas that Papa plays with but hasn't developed into real characters yet. As Catherine transforms herself and her husband into carbon copies and as Catherine expresses her sexual obsession with Marita, it seems like Hemingway is exploring the slippery nature of sexuality -- how one can experiment with one's sexual identity. But what Hemingway specifically says about this concept remains unclear. It's doubtless that the story David writes -- told in flashbacks starring Matthew Modine -- is a mess. It's Hemingway's fantasies about manhood expressed through hunting and domination over nature. But this story has little to do with the frame story and doesn't give us any significant insight into David's character. Overall, I wonder if the novel is this incomplete because although the film has the beginnings of some interesting additions to Hem's oeuvre, it ultimately doesn't amount to much. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Audience Member convoluted story line. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Hemingway's Garden of Eden

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Cast & Crew

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John Irvin

Director

Mena Suvari

Catherine

Jack Huston

David

Caterina Murino

Marita

Richard E. Grant

Col. Philip Boyle

Matthew Modine

David's Father

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Hemingway's Garden of Eden

(L-R) Jack Huston as David and Mena Suvari as Catherine in "Hemingway's Garden of Eden." (L-R) Mena Suvari as Catherine and Jack Huston as David in "Hemingway's Garden of Eden." Hemingway's Garden of Eden (2008) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis During an extended honeymoon in Europe, a restless wife (Mena Suvari) tests her husband's (Jack Huston) devotion by inviting a sultry Italian woman into their inner circle.
Director
John Irvin
Producer
Lorne Thyssen, Tim Lewiston, Bob Mahoney
Screenwriter
James Scott Linville
Distributor
Roadside Attractions
Production Co
Devonshire Productions, Freeform Spain, Berwick Street Productions
Rating
R (Nudity|Strong Sexual Content|Some Language)
Genre
Drama, Romance
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Dec 10, 2010, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 15, 2011
Box Office (Gross USA)
$22.1K
Runtime
1h 51m
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