Emerging from the megastardom of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, Harrison Ford tried antiheroism for a change in The Mosquito Coast. Ford plays Allie Fox, an iconoclastic inventor who moves his young family from the United States to the Central American jungle, where he buys a small village and tries to turn it into a utopian community. Ford dials up the smarm of Han Solo and the hubris of Indiana Jones to portray a man who’s just smart, capable, and charming enough to be dangerous—to himself, his family, and the villagers. Even when Allie’s schemes succeed—including a four-story contraption that makes ice and stands over the village like a metal god—he pursues them with a zeal that’s disturbing (and ironically in line with the American ideals of progress and prosperity that he supposedly abhors). Adapting a novel by Paul Theroux, screenwriter Paul Schrader emphasizes the god complex at play (especially as echoed in Allie’s feud with a nearby missionary), while director Peter Weir delivers another speculative anthropology drama in the vein of Picnic at Hanging Rock, Dead Poets Society, and The Truman Show. While Weir is always in control of the story, his camera mostly feels as if it’s only there to observe the human drama inevitably play out. With Helen Mirren as Allie’s wife and a young River Phoenix as his oldest son, both of whom watch their faith in him slowly slip away, like a muddy river bank in the rain.
(9/26/2022)
