John Steinbeck’s 1952 novel East of Eden has only been adapted for the screen twice – first, into a feature film starring James Dean released just three years after the book's publication, and then again into a 1981 miniseries starring Jane Seymour.
Elia Kazan directed the 1955 film, and it seems serendipitous that just over 70 years later, his granddaughter Zoe Kazan now follows in his footsteps as the screenwriter and executive producer of a seven-part Netflix series that is glossy and has no less cinematic sensibility than her grandfather’s movie.
Florence Pugh is the star signing as the fierce and machiavellian Cathy Ames. She is complex but still malevolent – and not without her own backstory and sense of tragedy – as she drives a wedge between the Trask brothers; portrayed by a brooding Mike Faist (Challengers) and Christopher Abbott (Poor Things).
Adam (Abbott) lives a life as a soldier at the behest of his domineering father Cyrus (Tracy Letts, with his usual gravitas), while his angry half-brother Charles (Faist) stays to live a lonely and desolate life on the Trask farm.
Eventually reunited, the brothers’ somewhat difficult equilibrium is disturbed by the arrival of enigmatic grave danger Cathy (Pugh, who proves a neat bit of casting). But who is she, and what is her true nature?
And so begins a generational saga that goes beyond a mere love triangle and deals with themes no less biblical than a near-direct retelling of the stories of Genesis and Cain and Abel; of the sins of the father (and mother), and the crushing weight of knowing one’s identity.
Pugh’s cold gaze and fiery spirit give Cathy the requisite intensity, and her depiction is not merely a caricature, but a living, breathing character capable of being judged in her historical context by modern audiences.
Meanwhile, both Abbott and Faist equip themselves well, the former with his characteristic moody intensity, while the latter has perhaps the harder job; particularly in later episodes as Charles's character offers us something rather different entirely to the source material. But it is in a manner that also feels thematically honest.
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The series is littered with other solid supporting turns from the likes of Ciarán Hinds as the wise and warm Samuel Hamilton and Martha Plimpton as maternal madam Faye. But the true secret weapon of this drama is Hoon Lee (Your Friends and Neighbours) as Lee, a servant to the Trask family whose interior life, goals, aspirations and heartache are portrayed with grandeur and charisma. Zoe Kazan also wonderfully expands on Lee’s own story with help from novelist Alexander Chee in a later episode, and makes this adaptation all the richer for it.
With stunning cinematography and an elegant score, the unsettling family saga gets room to breathe across a sweeping adaptation that digs into the detail and texture of the source material, and brings this story of generational trauma, sibling rivalry and the intoxicating power of temptation to a whole new generation.
East of Eden is available to watch now on Netflix.
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