Review of Eden Log (2007) by Richard C — 22 Oct 2008

A man wakes up in the dark. Cold and damp, covered in mud, he ventures forth to find out where he is and more importantly, who he is. So begins Eden Log, a movie reminiscent of Cube, Tarkovsky's Solaris, Aronofsky's The Fountain, maybe even a little of the game System Shock. And of course, there is some of the biblical story of Eden thrown in for good measure. It's shot in a way that's almost black and white, very desaturated and contrasty. But it isn't black and white, a small amount of colour does sneak onto the screen, but not much.

Anyway, it does start off rather slowly with very little dialogue. I'm sure it'll test the patience of more than a few viewers. But the story does pick up after awhile and it gets more interesting when we find out where and who he is. The lead actor carries the film well although the obvious low budget of this film hurts it sometimes too.

For some reason I thought there would be more action in this movie. There isn't much. But the biggest problem I had with this movie is the ending. Or the fact that it doesn't quite come together at the end. I don't know, maybe I missed a key piece of dialogue that would tie all the threads of this story together, or maybe I'm looking for a deeper meaning to this story that just isn't there. All I know is the ending felt very unsatisfying and it felt like the film was leading up to a more spectacular ending than the one we got.

Not that this is a bad movie, not by a long shot. It was very enjoyable and well made, on a limited budget. I just wish it had more to offer.