Apple TV Plus’ The Mosquito Coast is a hollow drama with strong performances
TV Reviews The Mosquito Coast
Much like its apathetic protagonist Allie Fox (Justin Theroux), Apple TV+ drama The Mosquito Coast is often vain because it doesn’t have the substance to back up its prestige. The thriller is beautifully shot and performed, but in terms of meaningful content or stories, it rings hollow. The series is loosely inspired by Paul Theroux’s (yes, Justin’s uncle) 1981 novel of the same name, but it distinctly veers away from its source material. In the book, disgusted by American capitalism and culture, Allie strives to move his family to Central America’s eponymous Mosquito Coast. The show’s Allie is also a conceited, genius inventor who forces his wife and kids to escape, this time to Mexico, because the government is after him. The Mosquito Coast is only interested in following their arduous journey without ever really divulging any insights into the actions of Allie and his wife Margot (Melissa George).
The creative choice to provide little to no backstory severely dulls the show’s impact. The Mosquito Coast remains just a surface-level, sepia-toned thriller about a family on the run, mostly to coax the vanity of its patriarch. Allie’s massive ego is essentially like a fifth family member, along with Margot and their two teen children, Dina (Logan Polish) and Charlie (Gabriel Bateman). The swift pace of the drama helps build some suspenseful momentum as the Foxes deftly navigate the challenges they face on the road, of which there are plenty. The compelling performances, especially by Theroux and Polish, help sell the urgency of their situation despite the series never clearly illustrating what they’re fleeing from or why.
When the show begins, the family is living on an isolated farm in Stockton, California, and Allie is occupied by his newest contraption that turns fire into ice. The kids are homeschooled and are not allowed to use any form of technology. It’s immediately obvious that Allie and Margot are in hiding, but their brood doesn’t realize it. Dina is suspicious, while Charlie worships his father and goes along with his unconventional teaching methods. By the end of hour one, The Mosquito Coast upends the family’s status quo and puts them on the run because they’ve been discovered. This kicks off a promising arc, but over the next six episodes, repetitive plotting manages to turn their physical obstacles and personal dynamics into laborious viewing. How many times can the Fox family narrowly escape disaster before it borders on downright inconceivable?
Allie arranges for his family to escape to Mexico with the help of old acquaintances. The Foxes have to trek across hazardous areas of the desert early on without any idea how to survive the harsh conditions. They get help from a coyote named Chuy (Scotty Tovar), who aids them in crossing the border but not without sufficient dramatic clashes with Allie. Chuy has his own motives for helping them that come into play in the later episodes of The Mosquito Coast, the end result of which is just the Foxes absconding from more than one entity. This twist only makes it even more incredulous that Allie, Margot, Dina, and Charlie are able to evade capture while bodies keep dropping around them. If only there was more information about Allie and Margot’s past, besides his apparently brilliant mind, to make it all make sense; by the time the pair provides vague tidbits to their children, it’s too late to add much context.
The Mosquito Coast’s greatest limitation is that it’s so committed to the gun-toting, frivolous action of its setting, the show doesn’t value fleshing out the characters. It’s hard to empathize with Allie, who is clearly bound by his rigid principles, even when he claims his driving force is his love for his family. He is perturbed by American capitalism and greed—again, no one really knows why—so he chooses to put his loved ones in other forms of danger, like crossing a precarious desert, the same land traveled by immigrants seeking even a smidgen of the same security Allie voluntarily discards. Margot is faithful to her husband and rarely questions him. When she does, he convinces her to follow along anyway. The only one to stand up to Allie is his rebellious daughter. Dina is sharp and doesn’t put her parents on a pedestal like her younger brother does, even if it means sometimes falling into the angsty teen stereotype.
This family thriller is meant to fall in the same vein as crime dramas Ozark or Breaking Bad, which scored awards recognition for the series and their lead actors. While The Mosquito Coast wastes its storytelling potential, Theroux does deliver a gratifying performance that might beckon Emmy nods (well-deserved after The Leftovers snubs). He successfully portrays Allie’s bitterness, fear, and the calmness that comes during his moments of respite. George doesn’t get nearly as many standout scenes, but she makes the most of the role, especially in episode four, “Bus Stop.” Relative newcomer Polish is a breakout as Dina. These solid performances anchor The Mosquito Coast, as does the show’s stunning cinematography and direction that effectively use its secluded locales. Otherwise the drama ends up being pretty mundane. It’s fun enough to follow along, but the payoff is far from satisfactory.
32 Comments
i remember in the book (or maybe the film) when the son eventually realizes that all his dad’s talk about using fire to form ice is actually about making a common household fridge/freezer & that for all his brilliance, his dad was full of bullshit.
Is there a scene like the one in the film where Martha Plimpton tells River Phoenix she thinks about him when she goes to the bathroom?
Who doesn’t? Amiright?
Oddly enough, I think about Martha Plimpton; but only when it’s number 2.
Man, don’t go in there for a while. I just plimped a ton.
movie is so good. that is all.
The movie flopped hard when it first came out. I think audiences rejected Harrison Ford in an insane/bad-guy role, and people also didn’t want to spend two hours watching a family be destroyed.
Juse read the book. No one needs an forced adaptation with glossy Hollywood actors.
This seems like another example of the ‘what about this story is compelling past a feature length film’ issue that peak tv keeps coming up with. Having an actual existing movie to compare it to (and a good one at that) probably doesn’t help
I can’t tell whether the reviewer made an effort not to compare the show to the awesome Harrison Ford movie or if he just didn’t know it existed. Anyway. Having been burned by too many of these shitty tv remakes, and even having been involved in making one or two, I’ll stick with the movie, methinks.
Mosquito Coast sounds like a terrible place.
Tourism Consultant: “Look, you guys have some great beaches here, and affordable hotels…but have you considered changing that name?”
If my dad said he was moving the family to The Mosquito Coast, I’d totally pull a Paige Jennings at the train station.
Especially if it involves going back to an empty apartment and drinking vodka in silence.
it’s bloody draining.
“Loosely inspired by-”Yet another Netflix adaptation of a memorable novel that ignores the novel. Great.The novel is a great read and is the kind of book one could film by just, to paraphrase John Huston, stuffing the pages into the camera.Thanks, Netflix.
The film was famous in my family for how much we all hated it. I haven’t seen it since (obviously) but it was always the thing we brought up when a movie was incredibly boring and full of terrible people.Like, “sure it was boring, but remember The Mosquito Coast?”
Would be interesting to see what you think of it with 30 years of perspective. It struck 10 year old me as fascinating and terrible, the first movie I’d seen where I didn’t know who to root for and started to realize that maybe rooting for someone isn’t the point of some movies.
the scene in the movie where Harrison Ford explains to George Constanza why American society is f—ked up is legendary and perfectly explains the family’s motivation for moving to the MOSQUITO COAST. Which, by the way, the Mexican desert has neither a coast nor mosquitos, but why let that get in the way of shitty TV episode writing?
“neither a coast”I mean, the Sonoran Desert borders the Gulf of California for quite a long ways.
🎶Some people like the mosquito-infested coasts of MexicoI’m in a giant grassopper-infested Illinois mountain range state of mind….🎶
This family thriller is meant to fall in the same vein as crime drama Ozark, which scored awards recognition for the series and their lead actors.But not critical acclaim, if I remember correctly.
Not a word comparing Justin Theroux’s performance to Harrison Ford’s ill-received rendition of the parallel role? You kids.
It seems like they might have been trying to avoid some of the less 2021-friendly components of the Mosquito Coast (i.e. so much missionary/ “let’s civilize the natives” stuff) and in doing so made it a completely different property. This does seem like a novel where there is enough plot to justify a limited series or even a few seasons of a show, but this sounds like a lot of bad choices.I haven’t watched it, but I’m guessing they aren’t really on the run and it’s just all Dad’s paranoia.
The themes in the book and the movie focus specifically around anti-colonialism and questioning the effect of missionaries. It in no way endorses or glorifies those ideas. Even if one were to go so far as to argue it was about un-colonizing his family it still results in a look at the failure of a white savior idyll. These are all themes that I consider very 2021-friendly, maybe even necessary. It’s one of my favorite movies of all time and having just watched it in the last 3 months I think it is still very relevant today.As far as the show is concerned it sounds exactly like an Ozarks version of the original story and seems to completely miss what made the original great. Shame.
Maybe it’s just being 40 years removed from the novel that leaves me uncertain that a straight adaptation set in 2021 could work – just in terms of the Mosquito Coast itself. There’s been a lot of political machinations since 1981, and I still have my doubts about the nuance that would go into portraying indigenous people.
I agree that sensitivity to indigenous people can always be improved. When I started watching it recently I was a little worried that maybe those concepts had aged poorly since I’d last seen it. But even with an eye for the change these concepts have made in modern society if anyone walks out of this movie thinking Allie Fox is the hero they have entirely missed the point that both Theroux and Weir were trying to make.
I wholly agree that Allie does not come across as a hero. I would be more concerned about how the missionaries and indigenous people are actually depicted. But I do wonder if that’s what some of the choices here have been driven by (rightly or wrongly).
Check out the 80s movie version of this story starring Harrison Ford and River Phoenix. It’s a terrific film and a grim indictment of the arrogance that fuels the “white savior” complex.
Side note: Watched Iron Man 2 last night with my son (we’re doing the chronological thing) and noticed for the first time that Justin Theroux wrote Iron Man 2. That’s pretty impressive to me. I have very low expectations for myself so when someone has success at many different levels, it validates my reason for having very low expectations for myself.
The review is spot-on. I was so dissapointed with the first episode. And it went donwhill from there, to the point that I didn’t even finish the season. I just can’t believe Paul Theroux endorsed this. He is even a producer! I was familiar with the novel, which I love and still think is a masterpiece. The main character was fascinating. The story is great. The Peter Weir movie was Ok. But this attempt to gratitously turn the original into some kind of of Ozark or Breaking Bad revamp is very hard to understand. The mentioned shows dids it all first and are unsurpassable so why oh why go in that direction? As for the cinematography, it is certainly good…at lamely mimicking the excellence of Breaking Bad. The content, acting & dialogue are presumptous and hollow. You can say I hated it.
Harrison Ford, River Phoenix, and Dame Helen Mirren, directed by Peter Wier. Shot by John Seale and scored by Maurice Jarre.You can’t beat that, not with a stick. It’s the only film I have done that hasn’t made its money back. I’m still glad I did it. If there was a fault with the film, it was that it didn’t fully enough embrace the language of the book (by Paul Theroux). It may have more properly been a literary rather than a cinematic exercise. But I think it’s full of powerful emotions.-Ford, 1992