Review of The Mosquito Coast (1986) by Lesley N — 24 Jan 2011
Paul Schrader wrote the script for THE MOSQUITO COAST, and even though it's based on a novel by Paul Theroux, it's easy to note the attraction he must've had to the material, given its portrayal of individualism run amok with a funhouse mirror reflection of the American dream as a hazy backdrop, along with ideas of colonialism, etc.
Harrison Ford plays a brilliant inventor who drags his family to La Mosquitia in an attempt to begin civilization anew, as he believes nuclear holocaust will soon engulf the United States. Naturally, things don't work out so well as the usual follies of man threaten to topple the utopia he's built in the jungle.
Like most Peter Weir films, THE MOSQUITO COAST is well realized on almost every level, with Harrison Ford flipping his usual sarcastic-yet-heroic persona on its head. Helen Mirren is wonderful as his wife who is loyal to a fault, but yet another great River Phoenix performance reminds of why his untimely death was such a loss for cinema.
MOSQUITO COAST doesn't often get discussed in the circle of great Harrison Ford films, or indeed great movies made in the eighties, but it completely deserves to be.
This review of The Mosquito Coast (1986) was written by Lesley N on 24 Jan 2011.
The Mosquito Coast has generally received positive reviews.
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