28
Metascore
9 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- Handsomely presented, with locations in Spain and Africa, the film at moments accomplishes its ambitions of being a tart piece of steamed-up Jazz Age storytelling.
- 50Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonVillage VoiceMichael AtkinsonDirector John Irvin, whose hapless 40-plus-year résumé runs from early Schwarzenegger to late Harold Pinter, never gets in the way, but the resulting sangria cocktail is mild, unchallenging, and kinda dull.
- 50MovielineMichelle OrangeMovielineMichelle OrangeThough based on the Hemingway novel published 25 years after his death, Hemingway's Garden of Eden feels more like the result of an ungodly alliance between Harlequin house writers and the cut-and-paste masterminds at A&E Biography.
- 40Time OutKeith UhlichTime OutKeith UhlichFor an especially egregious bit of miscasting, look no further than Mena Suvari, star of this tony adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's posthumously published novel about a disintegrating marriage.
- 40New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNew York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanWhile Suvari is especially miscast as a sophisticate, only Richard E. Grant, as a worldly Brit, seems to understand the text.
- 33The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe film isn't erotic or profound. It is occasionally comic, though-like reading the finalists for one of those Bad Sex In Fiction awards.
- 30VarietyRonnie ScheibVarietyRonnie ScheibGarden of Eden sends sleek, half-nude bodies glumly cavorting through lush Riviera landscapes in a paradigm of unintentional camp.
- 12New York PostKyle SmithNew York PostKyle SmithEverybody flirts with everyone else as director John Irvin pours on a level of shopping-mall-gift-shop-kitsch that would shame Wayne Newton.
- 0The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenFor all the cinematic crimes against him, there has been no book-to-screen translation of his work quite as atrocious as Hemingway's Garden of Eden.