SnoopyStyle
Allie Fox (Harrison Ford) is an eccentric inventor who is a know-it-all. He feels superior to everybody else, and is always angry at the world. One day, he decides to pack up his family (Helen Mirren, River Phoenix) and move to Central America in a region called the Mosquito Coast. He then buys his own ramshackle town and starts building including a big ice factory. He doesn't get along with the preacher neighbor Reverend Spellgood. Then three thugs with guns invade their isolation.Harrison Ford is crazy in this one. If you're looking to watch a mad man, then this is your movie. However it's impossible to root for this family. In a rare movie, River Phoenix is completely overshadowed by the manic Ford. It's possibly one of the more maddening movies around. It should be much more compelling. It should be a great viewing experience. But it must feel like what it is to be part of that family. Every time there is hope for this movie, the father maddeningly destroys it.
paul2001sw-1
There's a touch of John Galt about Harrison Ford's protagonist in 'The Mosquito Coast': a brilliant, welfare-hating, atheistic inventor who retires from a civilised world full of moochers and looters and consequently doomed to collapse. He (and the film) also seem to share Ayn Rand's view of a world not occupied by Europeans as a virgin territory. Yet the film shifts from portraying him as a Randian hero to something rather less attractive; and odd moments towards the end reminded me of Andrey Zvyagintsev's superb 'The Return', albeit without the subtlety. Subtlety is really the key here: the film needs to show how the character's final descent is a natural consequence of his worldview, not some random madness; but Harrison Ford lacks the depth as an actor to pull this off. A young Helen Mirren co-stars, but the film is fundamentally all about Ford, and he can't fully convey the darkness of the man. It's a shame: there's a good (although somewhat fabulous) parable in the underlying storyline.
PrometheusTree64
I never read the book, but I'm always impressed with how effectively low-key this picture is, sometimes hauntingly so.Harrison Ford has one of his most idiosyncratic roles, with good support from the cinematographer, Helen Mirren, and River Phoenix--- the latter of whom, in particular, reminds us of how good an actor he was by giving such a strong performance when he has almost NO dialogue (he does supply the occasional narration).And this is Ford's favorite among his own films.Peter Weir is one of our most lyrical directors... now, if he'd only add those 7 minutes back to "Hanging Rock"!
dir4
I've recently re-watched this movie and, after looking up the reviews on here, was quite surprised to see such a low rating and such negative reviews. I'm still not quite sure why, but my thoughts are that 1. people mistake this for a movie about ideas instead of a movie about a man, and 2. people think this will be a movie in which Harrison Ford plays the same old character instead of acts.Ford's character is not likable, which I think is the point. He is a narcissist blinded to the way the world works. He believes he can force the universe to his own will, as a narcissist will do. Certainly, the film takes this character to an extreme, but isn't that the point of drama? I found the characterization to be very spot on.This isn't the usual Hollywood slop pretending to be intellectual and deep. It is a study of complicated characters living in a complicated world without easy answers or neat conclusions.
AD
