Review: The Mosquito Coast

Harrison Ford plays a single-minded inventor who whisks his family (including wife Helen Mirren and son River Phoenix) off to Central America to create a jungle utopia. There they encounter internal conflict, external conflict, and mother nature. Andre Gregory plays a well-meaning missionary who earns Ford’s derision, with Martha Plimpton playing Gregory’s daughter. Butterfly McQueen of all people has a small role, and Jason Alexander can be briefly glimpsed early on at a store.

 

I’ve always carried with me a memory of this 1986 Peter Weir (“Gallipoli”, “Witness”) film being on my grandmother’s TV, and laughing at a particular line of dialogue from Martha Plimpton telling River Phoenix’s character that she thinks of him when she goes to the bathroom. Somehow that stuck with me all these years and nothing else about the film lingered at all. That said I would’ve been about 7 or 8 and the film as a whole wouldn’t likely have interested me. I just knew Martha Plimpton from “The Goonies” most likely (the second film I ever saw in theatres, after “Return to Oz”). So basically this is my first real viewing of the film. It’s likely to be my last as well, because as scripted by Paul Schrader (“Blue Collar”, “Taxi Driver”), this Paul Theroux adaptation is a slog to get through.

 

Although the character Harrison Ford plays starts out as interestingly single-minded, by the hour mark I had well and truly enough of this guy. I found Ford’s inability to suffer a fool like Andre Gregory’s well-meaning Reverend/missionary hilarious at first, but after a while you realise the guy’s just an arsehole who doesn’t seem to care what his actions are doing to his family. And that’s a shame because a committed Ford gives a really good performance here that deserves to be commended. I just don’t enjoy the character or the film itself. It doesn’t add up to a whole hell of a lot in the end, and it’s tough to care about the story when you don’t give two shits about the main character. I’m not even sure the story itself is all that interesting or substantial to be honest, it’s awfully repetitive. As far as I’m concerned we get the gist of the rejection of modernity theme etc. before they even get to the jungle and the actual plot kicks in. Weir’s snail-like sense of pacing here doesn’t help, either.

 

River Phoenix is fine as the son, but he gave better turns elsewhere, and his narration is a bit flat. Dame Helen Mirren is terribly wasted in a role she’s not especially well-cast in anyway. For me the best performance is from Martha Plimpton, she’s also playing the most relatable character, if woefully integrated into the narrative. Meanwhile, the fantastic scenery does most of the work for Weir and cinematographer John Seale (“Witness”, “The Hitcher”, “Gorillas in the Mist”, “The Talented Mr. Ripley”). It’s stunning. Like the later and somewhat similar “Captain Fantastic”, I suppose I can understand the appeal of this film, it just doesn’t appeal to me. Harrison Ford and Martha Plimpton are excellent, though. The film is a one-note bore that takes forever to get not very far.

 

Rating: C

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