# Felicia's Journey (1999)

### reviewed by
James Sanford

    FELICIA'S JOURNEY (Artisan Entertainment)
    Directed by Atom Egoyan

Director Atom Egoyan specializes in movies that create slightly unsettling atmospheres, and "Felicia's Journey" is no exception. As the story (adapted from William Trevor's novel) gently unfolds, it's like having one of those disturbing dreams in which everything seems normal but feels a little askew, almost if as some horrible tragedy is lurking just around the corner. "Journey" is very much the work of the same man who previously gave us the jarring "The Sweet Hereafter" and "Exotica."

In the film, Bob Hoskins plays a quiet, cultured little man named Joseph Hilditch, who lives by himself in a sprawling old house and works in a factory, overseeing a staff of cooks who prepare lavish lunches for the workers. Hilditch's mother Gala (played by the dirctor's wife Arsinee Khanjian) was a popular French chef back in the age of black-and-white broadcasts and she sometimes invited her little boy on the program to serve as comic relief. It appears he's still mired in the 1950s, if his choice of home decor and music are any indication. When his ancient food processor finally gives out, Hilditch simply walks into a spare room and pulls out another identical model from among the dozens he's stockpiled.

"Food must be served by caring hands, not by machines," Hilditch tells a salesman trying to pitch him a line of vending machines that would put his culinary team out of work. "It makes us feel loved." At home, he creates elaborate gourmet meals for himself, while watching tapes of his mother's show.

Felicia (Elaine Cassidy) is also alone in the world, having been shunned by her self-righteous father after becoming pregnant by Johnny (Peter McDonald), a young man who left their depressed Irish town to look for work in England. Utterly guileless and unaware she's probably been used, Felicia follows him.

Both characters experience flashbacks in which they suffer at the hands of domineering parents -- Felicia's dad calls her a whore in public and Johnny's aloof mother (Brid Brennan) ignores her pleas for information on where Johnny went, while Hilditch reflects on being treated like a prop on the set of Gala's show -- although their methods of processing this abuse are completely dissimilar.

You may correctly suspect the lives of Hilditch and Felicia are destined to intersect, but the beauty of "Felicia's Journey" lies in its refusal to adhere to a predictable path. Every time we think we know what's going to happen, the story spins off in a curious new direction; only in its unconvincing climax does it go wrong.

Speaking in a deliberate, understated voice and using a minimum of gestures (when he's not cooking, his hands are often buried in his pockets), Hoskins makes Hilditch a truly unnerving character, someone who's outwardly sedate yet seems to have ugly secrets drifting around in the back of his mind. Although Felicia's naive and unquestioning nature might have made her a fairly drab heroine in the hands of a less talented actress, Cassidy brings her tenderly to life and makes her plight heart-wrenching. James Sanford

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