ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

adriangr Return to Eden is an overblown "bonkbuster" style romantic thriller in which a wronged woman seeks revenge against the husband and best friend that betrayed her. Stretched over three episodes, each one being 90 minutes long, the story does not rush, although having read a synopsis I was surprised about the pacing of the tale (some spoilers below...)Episode 1 sees our heroine Stephanie married, cheated on, pushed into a river and the jaws of an awaiting crocodile by her husband and best female friend, assumed dead but washed up and nursed slowly back to something like health by a hermit, visit a plastic surgeon and get transformed into the beautiful "Tara", work her way back into life and society with this new identity until she feels ready to plan her revenge. That's a lot for episode 1, and I was wondering how they would keep up this level of plot propulsion for the remaining two.Well, they don't really. Episode 2 sees Tara revealed to the world as a beautiful woman, seemingly much younger than she looked as Stephanie, she then makes it as a fashion supermodel and finally she begins a game of cat and mouse with her husband and former friend, both of whom have no idea who she really is. After some careful plotting she summons both of them to her remote family country getaway home to prepare the final trap! Episode 2 is definitely the slowest of the three.Episode 3 sees all the main characters ensconced in the remote holiday home, and Tara begins her revenge. I won't say any more about episode 3, but rest assured that by the end of the final 90 minutes, you do get to see some satisfactory come-uppanceTo it's credit, the whole thing is fairly straight, There's no (well, very little) ridiculous ham acting or overblown flouncy bitching. The actors do a very good job. Best performance comes from Rebecca Gilling as the heroine. Her suffering as she recovers does seem to take a realistic amount of time and effort, and her dramatic "unveiling" as the foxy Tara did actually make me blink once or twice and wonder if they'd swapped to another actress - they didn't - so the makeover job is pretty good, it has to be said. Wendy Hughes does a very realistic job as the best friend, but if there's a weak point, it's James Reyne as the slimy husband, he seems to have very little charm. I guess all ladies do love a bad boy.The biggest drawback of the series is that it looks hysterically dated in the sequences where Tara becomes a "top model" and prances about in the most god-awful 80's "high fashion" outfits that you have ever seen. It's a shame really, as I am sure this all looked like hot stuff at the time, but time has not been kind. Other than that, it stands up pretty well. Stephanie's revenge, when it finally comes, seems like a fairly subdued pay off for such a long wait. But as Stephanie (the character) is not a vindictive woman, it's also fairly understandable. You'll probably enjoy the drama and plot of "Return to Eden" if you generally enjoy soap operas. The acting is nearly all very good, and no characters act in silly or counter-realistic ways. Sometimes Tara's refusal to reveal her true identity to even her most cherished loved ones (her children!) seems hard to take, but at the end of the day it's still a soap opera, so enjoy it.

d-mcclements Michael Laurence's great mini-series, sets the scene for the famous TV series which came later. Story wise the plot would keep even the most hardened soap devotee on the edge of their seat. That's as long as you don't question the fact that a mother would abandon her children by choice. This mini-series gives a slightly plausible explanation, but then again it is meant to be a drama and primarily made to entertain. And entertain it certainly does. Its the classic plot device of good against evil, except in this drama the good person starts out ugly and ends up beautiful! As for James Reyne's Greg Marden, well I'm a bloke I don't fancy him, on the other hand Rebecca Gilling's a different story, post op of course. She's even more sexy in the follow up series.Wendy Hughes plays a more sympathetic Jilly than Peta Toppano's devious, cold bitch in the sequel. True, she's still sneaky but nowhere near as arrogant as Peta! The resolution to the mini-series is a satisfying one, which I won't reveal. Go buy the DVD if you can find it.Performance wise this show is pretty well cast, it's almost like an ensemble piece, a quality shared by its sequel. You have to decide though, who gave the best performance in it? I'd say Rebecca Gilling, what her character endured in the duration of this show and how she dealt with it is gripping viewing! Wendy Hughes comes a close second, with James Reynes' slightly hammy acting in third.Comparing the mini-series with it's follow-up only shows that this show dared to be different, it's sequel is a little more formulaic and without giving too much away more contemporary.Return to Eden stands though as a solid compelling drama. The TV series spin off is just as compelling, both of them show the rise and fall of Stephanie Harper. If you come across either on DVD, buy it, they-re two of the very best examples of their genre.

Sherazade This was a great mini series, if I ever saw one. The plot is so solid and well-thought out that it just makes you wish you could read people's minds before you fall in love with and commit to share your life with them.A well-to-do entrepreneur marries an ordinary man, who soon falls in love and begins to have an affair with her best-friend. In order to acquire her money as well as gets the woman he really wants, the man conspires to kill his wife by pushing her into a crocodile infested lake. He then returns to land and announces her death but little does he know that his wife survives her ordeal and undergoes plastic surgery to reconstruct her face. With her new identity, she is able to become a famous supermodel and begins planning her revenge.It's a bit dated but well worth a look!

blanche-2 We used to call these opulent '80s mini-series "trash wallows." Unfortunately, they don't make them like this anymore. And I don't think anybody ever equaled the gigantic trash wallow of Return to Eden.First of all, it's Australian, with one gorgeous hunk after another - that in itself made it worth sitting through. Also it's an extreme makeover story before there were REAL extreme makeovers on reality TV. And this one's a doozie. Ugly, matronly, but loaded with cash, our heroine marries a hubba-hubba who, enamored with someone else (like five minutes after the wedding), throws his wife to the crocodiles. Maimed, she survives with the help of an old man and a handsome plastic surgeon who works wonders and falls for her in the bargain. She then becomes the toast of the modeling world and seeks her revenge.It's really too good. I own it.