Eden (2012)

Directed by: Megan Griffiths | 104 minutes | drama, thriller | Actors: Jamie Chung, Beau Bridges, Matt O’Leary, Scott Mechlowicz, Grace Arends, Tantoo Cardinal, Naama Kates, Tracey Fairaway, Stefan Hajek, Tony Doupe, Russell Hodgkinson, Laura Kai Chen, Jeanine Monterroza, Bhama Roget, Eddie Martinez, Roman Roytberg, Evgueni Petrov, Evan Mosher, Ernie Joseph, Demetrius Sager, Joseph Steven Yang, Hillary Dominguez

Of the Bridges brothers, the youngest, Jeff, is most famous. Beau was born in December 1941, Jeff was born almost exactly eight years later. As sons of acting parents (Lloyd and Dorothy Dean Bridges), it was clear from the start that they would follow their parents’ footsteps, but Jeff is the most successful, with six Oscar nominations and one cashing in on them. Nevertheless, Beau Bridges’ work can always be seen. In the fact-based ‘Eden’, a drama about women (or rather: teenage girl) trafficking, he plays a sneaky corrupt cop who is involved in some very dirty business.

Hyun Jae is a beautiful girl. She is nineteen, but looks younger (partly because of her braces). She is from Korea but has been living with her parents in the United States for some time. Her relationship with her father is better than that with her mother, but it is not really explored in depth, because ‘Eden’ immediately throws you into the story. Against her mother’s wishes, Hyun Jae goes out with a friend. The shy girl soon gets the attention of a beautiful firefighter and when her friend abandons her to go on the pick-up tour herself, she decides to accept his advances. Once in his car, she is trapped like a rat. When they arrive at a gas station, she discovers that the fireman’s badge the boy proudly displayed is fake. Headlights of a car parked behind them startle her and she realizes she is in trouble. Hyun Jae tries to flee, but in vain. She ends the day gagged and with tape over her mouth in the trunk…

When she comes to she is lying on a rollaway hospital bed in a dingy room. She gets a shot under protest, tries to wrestle herself free, indicates that she wants to let her parents know where she is, but the unkempt-looking ‘sister’ is unrelenting. Hyun Jae ends up in a shed, where dozens of peers are sitting. They are dressed in faded shirts and underpants and are lined up in a row. A shocking image. Hyun Jae is given a new name, Eden, befriends a fellow sufferer and is initiated into the world of paid sex. In the meantime, she continues to keep her fighting spirit. She is determined to escape from the clutches of her gruesome captors. Her accounting skills, which she always used in her parents’ business, come in handy. Vaughan, the drug-addicted manager of the case, who is not even that much older than Hyun Jae, soon realizes that she is an asset to the company in more ways than the obvious.

What makes ‘Eden’ so interesting is the development that the main character goes through. There is nothing left of the shy child at the beginning of the film. Her relationship with her oppressor, Vaughan (an impressive Matt O’Leary) is also well developed and you actually get some sympathy for his character. Beau Bridges is genuinely creepy, but the strongest acting performance can be credited to lead actress Jamie Chung, who suffered a similar fate as Amber in ‘Sucker Punch’. The plot of ‘Eden’ is predictable to a certain extent, but the film makes no secret of that either (it’s already in the ‘inspired by the true story of Chong Kim’). However, the makers still have some surprises in store for the viewer. Combined with the strong acting and the believable characters, this makes ‘Eden’ a good drama with thriller elements.