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@optonline.net
Copyright 2006 Mark R. Leeper
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