Review: Surviving Eden (2006)

SURVIVING EDEN
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

CAPSULE: This is a film that begins in the style
of a Christopher Guest satire but along the way
turns into a somewhat more serious story of the
roller coaster effects of temporary fame. The
humor is uneven but somewhere inside this film
is a good story. Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4) or
6/10

"Fame is fleeting but obscurity is forever."--Napoleon Bonaparte

This quote opens SURVIVING EDEN, written and directed by Greg
Pritkin. (Actually, Napoleon said glory is fleeting.) The
format of his film is at first a mockumentary about the
stars/contestants of a reality television show. The fictional
program is itself called "Surviving Eden." The producers of the
show are coke-sniffing Maude Silver and Gary Gold (Jane Lynch and
Sam Robards). The film shows us three contestants preparing for
the program. Players are put on an island paradise in the nude
to see if they can survive. One of them wins, and then later the
film becomes more serious as we track what the fame of winning on
the show does to a somewhat typical person. The winner is Dennis
Flotchky (played by Michael Panes), an obese convenience store
clerk who has never been out of Pomona, California. Suddenly
this nebbish finds he is a national figure. Dennis wins over his
two major opponents: a liberated nun who is a heavy metal fan and
an excessively aggressive and assertive canine "euthanasia
technician." Dennis wins and then has to pay the heavy emotional
price of his newfound fame.

Pritkin, who previously wrote and directed the off-center comedy
DUMMY, gives us some amusing moments, but in general the humor is
hit or miss with some sequences simply being odd. As the tone
changes the film loses much of its impetus. The some of the
points, notably that Dennis has become a different person, go
from apparent to belabored.

Michael Panes debuted in feature films with THE ANNIVERSAY PARTY
and has done several pieces of television work. With the long
hair and hippie outfits he wears in this film seem to be borrowed
from Peter Sellers in I LOVE YOU ALICE B. TOKLAS. The supporting
cast includes Peter Dinklage, a little more laid-back than his
roles in THE STATION AGENT and LIVING IN OBLIVION. Dinklage
plays Dennis's stoner best friend. THE STATION AGENT showed that
Dinklage could be a good actor, but his character here is lacking
in color and is not well developed. In small roles we also have
Conchita Ferrel and a rare acting turn for John Landis. The film
could have used two or three more minor characters to play show
contestants. We see a lot of these three people and nothing but
over the shoulder shots of anyone else. It also would have been
an opportunity to introduce some more quirky personalities and
broadened the film.

Certainly the style of writing is inspired by Christopher Guest
films. And the inclusion of Jane Lynch, formerly of BEST IN
SHOW, only reinforces the connection. Michael Panes is a little
too over-the-top to be believed as Mr. Typical American. The
point of the film is to say that this is what temporary fame does
to ordinary people. But neither Pritkin nor Panes seems to have
much of a feel for what an ordinary person from the real world
would be like. There seem to be only a limited number of
professions that show up in films and, unfortunately, convenience
store clerk is one of them. Pritkin shows us what effect the
winning experience has on not an ordinary person but an
exaggerated buffoon. That does not kill the film, but it
severely wounds it.

This comedy could use some polishing. With a little more style
it could have been better, but there is a decent film inside this
one somewhere. I rate it a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or
6/10.


Mark R. Leeper
mleeper.TakeThisOut@optonline.net
Copyright 2006 Mark R. Leeper