Review: The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden

City Paper grade: B

Who would have ever thought that decamping to an isolated island paradise armed only with Nietzschean philosophy might end badly? The Galapagos Affair recounts a lurid tale of social Darwinism that unfolded in the birthplace of natural selection during the 1930s. The unsolved whodunit involves a pair of misanthropic Germans seeking to escape civilization, a family who proves that irritating neighbors is inevitable even in uninhabited jungles, and an Austrian baroness who arrives with a ménage in tow, intending to establish a resort hotel for tourists. The inevitable clash leads to an unexplained disappearance, most likely a murder, and the film depicts the uncomfortable triangle as an unflattering Lord of the Flies-meets-Gilligan’s Island microcosm of human society. It’s a compelling story made into a dry slog by Ballets Russes filmmakers Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller, who transform a tale of bitter hermits, sex and murder into something resembling a vintage educational film. The story is told in the words of the participants, using letters and memoirs read by Cate Blanchett, Diane Kruger, Thomas Kretschmann and others. There are also talking-head interviews with descendants of the original participants and Galapagos residents who grew up with other parents who sought to escape the modern world in the years between the two World Wars. Ultimately, they all seem to have come to the conclusion that no matter how much like paradise a place may seem, it’s spoiled when you can’t leave yourself behind.