Product Details

• Actors: Joanna Going, Dylan Walsh, Sean Patrick Flanery
• Directors: Howard Goldberg
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Genius
• DVD Release Date: January 1, 1996
• Run Time: 107 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1572526467
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #138,313 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Eden" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Helen Kunen is a young woman who is caught between her duties as a 1960's housewife and her longings to be independent and free.

Married to Bill, a teacher at Mt. Eden prep school, she feels stifled by her husband's limited expectations for her and the physical restrictions of living with the debilitating disease multiple sclerosis. Dave, a troubled student who boards with them, develops a crush on Helen who, contrary to Bill's hard-nosed approach, gently encourages him. Helen's life becomes increasingly un bearable, but in the face of her despair she starts to realize her potential to be liberated from her physical being through dreams of flight and out-of-body experiences. However, with each incredible spiritual awaking, Helen grows more and more ill before eventually slipping into a coma. But, through the devotion of her husband and the young man who worships her, she finally discovers love's overwhelming power to heal.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Garden of Love Grows at a Boys School, January 22, 2000

By 

John O'Shea - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eden [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Sometimes casting is all. Joanna Going is so believably beautiful that her face and her heart cast a spell over the viewer, and even as the voice of her spirit expresses her desire to be free of the body that slowly decays and then lies still in a long coma, we--and her husband and the young student who loves her--long to see her return to the boys and the grass of the campus she calls home. Okay, it's a corny story, but so's "Romeo and Juliet," and "Eden" affirms the value of life and the glory of love. You'll root for everybody in Eden; they're faulty, stumbling human beings who struggle with life, love and death in the best ways they know how. Everybody grows, and almost all viewers will cheer and tear.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's one worth looking up, August 4, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Eden [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I enjoyed this story about a woman with MS who uses her unique and rather puzzling gift for astral projection to escape her illness and her limited life as a 1950s housewife (or 1960s - I didn't catch the exact setting). Her husband really got on my nerves with his martyr attitude toward his ailing wife; he was so smug about how well he was taking the change in her while pushing her hard not to give in to her symptoms. Meanwhile, she keeps wanting to teach and her husband insists that she has plenty to do in the home. No wonder that with frustrations like that, she literally chooses to escape the world. Finally, at the end of the film, the information gets through to her husband that he can't keep forcing his wishes on her. The ending is truly moving and made me cry.

I find the astral projection angle puzzling, though. Little was actually explained about it - little was shown. There was no mention of how long she'd been doing it or why she could do it when others couldn't. When did she start it? It was like some scenes were missing. I suppose the angle works if you take astral projection as a metaphor for something she needed and used for escape. It's just such a darn unusual activity that the lack of background information puzzled me. Also, a student living at her house kept mocking her behind her back by saying "Psycho-somatic" whenever she acted a little bit odd. Were we supposed to think that maybe she was imagining everything? I feel much could've been made clearer. Still, I recommend the movie. It's okay to be asked to use your brain and interpret for yourself.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First Love at Mt. Eden, August 1, 2011

By 

Jule Kijek (Redford, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eden (DVD)

Outstanding performances by the three principle players. Very tender coming of age movie set at a private all boys boarding school in the mid '60's. I very much enjoyed this movie though I wish it had had subtitles.