The Mosquito Coast (1986)

Directed by Peter Weir. Starring Harrison Ford, River Phoenix, Helen Mirren, Conrad Roberts, Andre Gregory, Jadrien Steele, Martha Plimpton, Dick O’Neill. [PG]

A stubborn, iconoclastic inventor (Ford) uproots his family for the jungles of Central America, moving them to a tiny remote village where he builds an “advanced” utopia and unleashes his God complex on both his kin and the locals. A mature and often compelling adaptation of Paul Theroux’s acclaimed novel, the film was widely misunderstood and dismissed when first released, resulting in a flop despite serving as a reunion between the director and star of Witness from the year before. Ford has rarely been better, even though his character’s mercurial, despotic nature makes him almost entirely unsympathetic, even detestable at times, but what a relief that the story didn’t try to manufacture a redemptive arc for him in the final act. The film’s limited field of vision restricts the thoughts and feelings of his family (aside from Phoenix’s intermittent narration) and muddies the motivations behind the father’s headstrong obsessions, but complex attributes don’t deserve simple answers, and Weir’s nuanced, humanist approach to the cold rigors and inevitable hubristic downfall is powerful stuff. Screenplay by Paul Schrader. Look for brief appearances from a young Jason Alexander and an elderly Butterfly McQueen (her final feature film).

79/100