SnoopyStyle
Joe Hilditch (Bob Hoskins) is an eccentric manager of a catering company. Felicia (Elaine Cassidy) is a desperate young lady from Ireland looking for her boy friend who left her to go to London.This is very much a creepy movie that starts out as a gentle film. The style, the story, and the actors don't really hint at the subject matter early on. Director Atom Egoyan is doing something perverse here. It's almost as if he's lulling the audience into a different movie. Then he turns the movie slowly into something disturbing. It's a very slow start for people who want action. This ain't the movie for that. Bob Hoskins is brilliant as he creeps into Felicia's journey. He's the perfect blend of likability on the outside, and the ugliness on the inside.
kenjha
A middle-aged man whose mother was a TV chef works for a catering company but leads a secret life as a serial killer. There should be a law requiring Great Britain to add subtitles to any film with Hoskins before it can be exported to the unsuspecting masses expecting the spoken language to be English. Hoskins is a pretty good actor but the language he speaks is not English. The pacing is very deliberate, with too much screen time devoted to mundane actions like driving and walking. Little is revealed about the psyche of a serial killer. The ending is ridiculous. Egoyan has made a number of intriguing films, but this is not one of his better efforts.
btm1
I came to "Felicia's Journey" without advance knowledge of the film. The Verizon FiOS program information describes it simply as, "A young woman leaves rural Ireland to search for the man who got her pregnant." It also listed two cast members: Bob Hoskins and Arsinee Khanjian. FiOS doesn't even mention Elaine Cassidy who does such an outstanding job as the title character, the female lead. The description did not even categorize the film as a drama of comedy.I chose to save this on my DVR because I usually like films that Bob Hoskins agrees to be in. I had not heard of Arsinee Khanjian or her husband, the director Atom Egoyan.I suggest that I was fortunate to not have advance knowledge. Early in the film I realized that Joe Hilditch (Hoskins) was unusual. He seems to run the lunch room of a heavy industry factory, but has the title of "catering manager;" although he is not the head chef of a four star restaurant, he is presented as a culinary expert of great sensitivity. Yet despite his obvious culinary expertise, at home he prepares meals while following along with a TV cooking show. In other words, this is a complex character, someone you are interested in learning more about.That is probably about as much as you should know about this film before you watch it for the first time. Oh, one more thing - it is not a comedy.
spj-4
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!
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