Felicia's Journey (1999)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Atom Egoyan's film Felicia's Journey takes various issues into its hands by telling the story of a young Irish girl looking for her Irish boyfriend who joined the British army. Her father strongly disapproves of this relationship and in the end abandons her completely. She goes to England, by herself, relying on the kindness of a middle aged chef Joe,(Bob Hoskins), in order find her boyfriend. Joe's obsession is watching an old show with an eccentric French cook, and copying her complicated recipes. He is slowly unmasked as a serial stalker of vulnerable young women, that were in similar cases of Felicia's.The film is set in a very grim and grey-clouded world where parents systematically abuse, neglect, disown or molest their children, or simply try to control their children like puppets and as a result, they either get killed or become killers. Joe's mother, the French cook, basically failed as a mother by neglecting him and abused him by shoving stuffing in his mouth when he made a mistake while helping her on her TV show. Joe's victims seem to come from all sorts of backgrounds, all with one similarity, they come from a hard family lives. Joe is ultimately a victim like Felicia and all those who have been left to fend for themselves in a harsh and cruel world, which is the sad case of reality in many families around the world.The director does the right thing in concentrating on the character's emotions rather than pull the same old boring thriller/horror situations you find in so many American movies. Many films rely on the action, rather than the humanity of characters, which is why so many of the films nowadays are unfortunately just plain weak.

I'm not entirely sure that I have Felicia's Journey entirely figured out, but I liked it. Egoyan's method is hard to summarize, but one source I found put it in a way that makes enough sense when considering the bulk of Egoyan's work, He seems drawn to the notion of 'self fulfilment through intimacy'. Egoyan likes when characters talk to each other the way somebody addresses their psychiatrist. In Felicia's journey, the title character, leaves home in Ireland to go find her loved one in England, where he plans to enlist. Once on English shores, Felicia has trouble getting around. The only person who seems drawn to help her, is a middle aged factory chef, who lives alone, offers her a place to stay, and agrees to help look for her sweetheart. At the same time however, he is lying to her, claiming to be a widower among other things, trying to earn her sympathy, while deliberately going in circles over the search. Somehow he seems unwilling to let her go.In a way, Felicia's Journey is Egoyan's most disturbing film. Never before have I seen Bob Hoskins so deep in a role. I am more used to him as a superficial comedic face in such films as Hook, Brazil and Super Mario, Bros; although I am quite aware that he has done drama. Here he done a sensational job of a warm face to an utterly frigid character.Judging from the ending, Felica's Journey clearly has a message to leave us, but again I'm not sure what it is. Egoyan is unique in that the inability to interpret him feels more intriguing than annoying. The manner in which he draws you into a dark world of thought behind the story of this motion picture, is enough for me to call it an effectively tense, and well done drama.

One gets the very clear impression, from his films, that Mr Egoyan did not have the most satisfactory of childhoods. Well, that's a shame for him, but I guess a bonus for us because we get to see the results of him exploring the themes through film. This is a very good film in which he surely gets from Bob Hoskins, the best performance of his life. He certainly won't be getting anymore British Telecom, 'It's good to talk' ads after the talk he does in this but it is most persuasive. Perhaps one wishes now and again for Felicia, wonderfully played by, Elaine Cassidy, to be a little more 'street wise' or for the director to push things forward a little more quickly, but all in all, a most satisfying and disturbing work.

I found this an awfully disappointing experience! But I have appended a better option of similar style at the foot of this entry.This "Felicia's Journey" is intriguing. It has drama. But it is full of stereo-types! So it ONLY serves judgemental temperaments without concern for truer justice & fairness & truth, beyond black 'n' white judgements that fit 30-second ads of "NEWS" that dot our multimedia experiences everyday, especially news bulletins, true or misleading in such depictions! It is SO EXAGGERATED, it reminds me of the fairytale of "Little Red Ridinghood"! Consider the innocent young girl with no identification crossing borders questioned by a guard but freed without any evidence to venture on in search of her 'Romeo' who didn't give her an address VERSUS the pathetically inept lack of substance in the raspy voice of the 'helping hand' befriending her with his unlikely story fabricated by the layer! It seems to suit the directors & management team that no-one has faith or prays to God, even in their times of desperation! So in these early settings, it orchestrates & tells much of what is to come! A nightmare journey that betrays the essence of substance without fairytale resolution, without truth or integrity or credibility! ...Then one twist & it's all over. What a disappointment! If you want to see a MUCH superior movie that investigates similar themes with MUCH more credibility, with much more powerful insight, watch the 1983 Paul Cox/Norman Kaye "Man of Flowers" movie!!! Unlike here, you will NOT be disappointed!