Florence Pugh
“EAST OF EDEN” (Netflix)
What most of us know about John Steinbeck’s 1952 novel East of Eden comes from Elia Kazan’s 1955 screen adaptation…which is to say we don’t know much aside from the fact that it was one of only three movies made by cult hero James Dean before his early death.
Kazan’s film jettisoned more than half of the book’s narrative, settling on the second half, the traumatic coming-of-age tale of twin brothers in turn-of-the-century rural California. In doing so the movie lost the novel’s epic (one might even say Biblical) scope, a study of familial dysfunction passed down through generations.
Now we have Netflix’s seven-part “East of Eden,” created and scripted, ironically enough, by Kazan’s actress granddaughter Zoe Kazan. It is, for better or worse, tremendously faithful to the book.
It also features Florence Pugh delivering one of the most devastating performances you’ve ever seen. Despite the overall high quality of the acting, it’s safe to say this “East of Eden” is pretty much her show.
Her character, Cathy, appeared only briefly in the ’55 film and then only as the bloated, aging madam of a Salinas bordello. But in this miniseries she’s the linchpin on which the drama turns…when she’s not on screen the show is OK, but when she’s front and center you cannot look away.
We first see her beaten to a bloody pulp and crawling across a plowed field toward a Massachusetts farmhouse. There she is discovered by bachelor brothers Adam and Charles Trask (Christopher Abbott, Mike Faist), who take her in and send for the local sawbones.
The series’ episodes have been structured in such a way as to introduce the main characters as adults and then delve into their pasts.
Thus we see Adam and Charles as boys (played by Asher Whitehead and Gus Turner), being reared by their martinet of a father (Tracy Letts), a cruel blowhard who has parlayed his brief Civil War service into a full-time gig in the Washington bureaucracy. The brothers have been twisted in different ways by their sneering sire…Adam is cowed and naive, Charles tough and cynical.
Moving ahead we find Adam playing nursemaid to the recuperating Cathy; Charles doesn’t trust her for a minute. Obviously, Adam is falling for his beautiful (once the blood has been wiped off) patient.
Then we get an entire episode keyed to Cathy’s childhood (she’s played as a teen by Ella Gillan) in a deeply religious family and her growing anger at the limited options available a woman in that time and place. She proves herself to be something of a shape shifter, hiding her true personality to adapt to her circumstances.
Mike Faust, Christopher Abbott, Florence Pugh
We quickly realize that Cathy is profoundly amoral, if not downright sociopathic. She will literally kill to realize her independence.
Married to the clueless but desperately adoring Adam, she resettles with him on a California ranch and gives birth to twin boys. (Are they Adam’s or his brother Charles’?) Feeling trapped, she abandons her family, vanishing into the world of prostitution.
Thereafter the heartbroken Adam barely moves from his rocking chair. Young Cal and Aron are basically reared by their Chinese cook/housekeeper (Hoon Lee) and a garrulous neighbor (Ciaran Hinds). (Lee and Hinds are a revelation, belying the old notion that nice guys are boring.)
Hoon Lee, Ciaron Hinds
Running throughout “East of Eden” are intimations of the biblical Cain and Abel. Just as Adam is compassionate and his brother Charles hard, so is Aron (Joe Anders) the good son and Cal (Joseph Zada) the black sheep who acts impetuously and is always in and out of trouble. (Zada has his work cut out for him…the role of Cal will always belong to James Dean, whose ability to sell adolescent angst is unsurpassable.)
Now all of this is fine. But what sticks with the viewer are the moments when the narrative turns to Cathy as she worms her way into the good graces of an aging brothel owner (Martha Plympton) and in short order inherits the operation.
Pugh’s Cathy is conscienceless, a demonic succubus who radiates allure but sees sex merely as a means to an end. She’s one of the nastiest pieces of work ever depicted, but in Pugh’s hands she is not only watchable but compelling. This perf is nuanced beyond belief. There’s something almost heroic in Cathy’s determination to be her own person. You’ll find yourself reluctantly admiring her unapologetic quest for agency and self-realization. Ayn Rand would have loved her.
“East of Eden” has been directed by Garth Davis and Laure de Clement-Tonnerre, who eschew cinematic tricky for straightforward storytelling. The production values are first rate, my only complaint being that 1900s Salinas CA is depicted as having massive European-style stone buildings inappropriate for a frontier farming community (BTW the show was filmed in New Zealand).
When it’s all over, though, what we recall is Pugh as the scheming, terrifying but spellbinding Cathy. Most actors work a lifetime for a role this juicy…once this one sets up in your head there’s no getting rid of her.
| Robert W. Butler
