The Mosquito Coast (1986)

Harrison Ford was well established when this movie came out in 1986. Several of the Star Wars movies with him as Han Solo had already been made, as well as two of the Indiana Jones movies. This role is a departure from those and the movie's success rides on his performance. He carries it well.He plays Allie Fox, an inventor living in the greater Baltimore area with his wife and 4 children. He is bright and positive and seems able to invent a solution to about any problem. His family looks up to him and follows his lead. So when he pulls up roots and tells the family to pack their suitcases, they are going to a wild and unspoiled place, they smile and take the boat trip to Central America in stride.Helen Mirren, not yet well known in the USA in 1986, is his wife 'Mother' Fox. His oldest son, about 15, is River Phoenix as Charlie Fox. Allie is brilliant but stubborn, and while that gets them towards many solutions it also gets them into more problems than they bargained for.Allie was fed up with the commercialization and frivolity of the world. He wanted a life free of all that for himself and his family.A young Martha Plimpton, also about 15, is good as Emily Spellgood in a smaller supporting role as the daughter of a Christian Evangelist.I enjoyed it for the novelty and the complexity of trying to start fresh in this modern world.SPOILERS: For my recollection, his first settlement is working well, with gardens and even a giant ice-maker and air-conditioner run on flames. When three men with guns arrive and threaten their existence Allie lures them inside the machine as a type of 'hotel' for the night, locks them in, and starts the machine to freeze them. But they shoot and damage the workings, everything explodes and burns, they have to leave. Their next home is on the seashore, but a big storm tears it up. Back on the river they encounter the preacher's settlement, they start a fire, the preacher has a gun and shoots Allie, he dies on their little houseboat as they approach the sea again. Presumably the family goes back to Baltimore.

I'm always interested in movies which tell the adventures of people who leaves their usual life to follow their heart (as I would five everything to do the same...). So I couldn't miss this one and if it has a big lump in the middle, it' still a great one. Tagged forever with blockbusters, Harrison is unfairly not rated as a true actor and it's a pity as here, he is just amazing: Usually quiet, he is rather expansive now, so driven by his dreams and convictions! We have never seen him like this before and he is great! He manages so well the character that you can notice that since the beginning, he is on the edge so his later fall is expected! The story is thus interesting as for one time, one man and his family fulfills his dream and lose everything due to hazard! Beyond the personal story, it's also a strong ecological tale and an intelligent reflexion about civilization and religions. It's funny to see that the catholic evangelist is pretty authoritative and intransigent when he should be all love and compassion. On the other hand, Harrisson is also on the wrong path in my opinion: reject modernity and civilization and living like the first man may seem positive but in the end, it's mixing a mean with an end. Which goal Harrison wanted with his family unhappy? This kind of idea just forget the incredible creative human mind and technology is first build to help and protect mankind! Finally, I would say that Weir was one of the best director in the 80s: « witness », « mosquito », « green card », « dead poets » and i wonder what happened to him as i don't heard about him anymore !

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.

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.