Exit to Eden


Exit to Eden is an interesting movie. It seemingly delves into sado-masochistic (sexual) relationships, albeit in a comical way, but ends up coming off as a sappy love story in the end. The main reason for this is that the chief dominatrix, Lisa Emerson (Dana Delaney), is too soft herself, falling in love with our hero, Elliot Slater (Paul Mercurio). At first when I looked at the exposure of flesh, I thought it was going to end up being a farce, but Rosie O' Donnell saves the day (as she did in The Flintstones) along with Dan Aykroyd.

The plot is as follows: Emerson runs a kinky carnival in an island named Eden, designed to help people fulfil their wildest sexual fantasies. Slater is one such person, with such a, shall we say quite literally, spanking fantasy. Slater is also a photographer with the only picture of Omar (Stuart Wilson II), a drug smuggler who has never been photographed since third grade. So Omar, and his psychotic accomplice, are after Slater. Sheila Kingson (O'Donnell) and Fred Lavery (Aykrod) are after Omar. They all end up in a S&M orgy. You can guess the rest. The interesting part is that it has Enigma's Sadeness Part 2 (or whatever it's called) to this one scene, which I thought fit the mood very well. Also Ministry's Jesus Built my Hotrod works well for a rollerblading race.

The movie might actually have turned out better if its makers had delved into S&M and bondage, or what is implied as deviant sexual behaviour, into greater detail, perhaps from a psychoanalytic perspective. As it stands, I don't think the fantasies seen in the movie are any different from what every other person in this world has. It is pretty funny at times and perhaps you could rent it someday. But don't waste your money on it on the big screen.


Movie ram-blings || Ram Samudrala || me@ram.org