Like the latter film, "The Last Wave" is a story about the earth itself rebelling against those who don't belong, but the ambiguity is even stronger this time out. Peter Weir's third and final horror-adjacent feature after "The Cars That Ate Paris" and "Picnic at Hanging Rock" is also a peculiarly Australian narrative. Watching Allie steamroll his way through both the jungle and his family's well-being shifts the film from drama to adventure to an American tragedy set thousands of miles away from home. There are bumps along the way, particularly with underserved supporting characters like Allie's wife and son (Helen Mirren, River Phoenix), but Ford is a powerhouse who's difficult to look away from. Ford's performance as Allie Fox, one of his best, keeps viewers on edge, and the character's constant push and pull is equally engaging. Much as casting "good guy" Harrison Ford for the role of the brilliant but belligerent patriarch does. That unsettled feeling arguably works to the film's advantage in some ways, though. There's a difference, one typically found in a thin layer of optimism running through the former's work, and it leaves 'The Mosquito Coast' feeling somewhat uneven. Weir makes movies about people who are challenged, while Schrader prefers people who are damaged. In retrospect, maybe pairing a director like Peter Weir with a writer like Paul Schrader wasn't the best of ideas. It's an odd choice that deflates the drama to some degree, but the affecting performances and inspiring journey remain. At one point, they look up towards the Himalayas, their greatest challenge ahead of them, and then, Weir cuts to them pretty much wrapping it up. The film suggests a great tale of survival, but it falls short, as it becomes an epic in search of more running time. They face harsh weather, hungry wolves, dwindling food and water, and more threats along the way. As is often the case with Weir's films, the humanity of their situation quickly takes precedence over a need for historical truths. The film casts a capable Jim Sturgess in the lead role and surrounds him with a strong ensemble (Ed Harris, Colin Farrell, Mark Strong, Saoirse Ronan). The story is memorable, as Weir loosely adapts Slavomir Rawicz's memoir/novel "The Long Walk" (the author's claims of fact were later challenged) about an epic walk to freedom from Siberia to India. Peter Weir's final film may not be his weakest, but like "Green Card," it feels, at times, like a stab at familiarity that somehow loses the director's voice along the way. Life in the prison camp was difficult, but the path to freedom will challenge them like nothing else before. It's 1941, and several men have just escaped from a Soviet gulag in Siberia.
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