Cast: Bob Hoskins, Elaine Cassidy, Arsinée Khanjian, Peter McDonald, Gerard McSorley, Brid Brennan, Claire Benedict, Danny Turner
Director: Atom Egoyan
Producer: Bruce Davey
Screenplay: Atom Egoyan, based on the novel by William Trevor
Cinematography: Paul Sarossy
Music: Mychael Danna
U.S. Distributor: Artisan Entertainment
During the early years of his career as a filmmaker, Atom Egoyan made a number of movies that I consider to be "interesting failures" - intriguing and often artistic approaches that resulted in vaguely drawn characters or fragmented narratives (The Adjuster is a prime example). Then, in 1995, everything came together for Egoyan in Exotica, a wrenching, powerful examination of the effects of grief on a small group of characters. The director's next outing, The Sweet Hereafter, which confronts similar themes, accomplished the seemingly-impossible task of improving upon his work in Exotica. Taken as a couplet, Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter represent some of the most astounding material committed to film by any director during the '90s. With such a strong, recent legacy, there were many questions about whether Egoyan could continue to maintain this high level of excellence with Felicia's Journey, his follow-up to The Sweet Hereafter. Thankfully, the answer is "yes."
Egoyan's films often center on emotionally damaged individuals, and Felicia's Journey is no exception. Both of the leads suffer from deeply-rooted traumas that manifest themselves in different ways. Egoyan uses a series of flashbacks to deepen our understanding of the factors that have formed the characters' current personalities. As was the case in both Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter, he throws away the conventional, chronological narrative approach, preferring instead to weave together the past, the present, and occasional doses of dreams and fantasies. However, because Egoyan is above all a masterful storyteller, his frequent switches of time period and film stock never confuse the attentive viewer. The overall storyline is very much in focus, even if its eventual resolution is in doubt.
Felicia's Journey concentrates on two characters, and, in Egoyan's inimitable way, he deftly switches between them, choosing transition points that italicize their similarities and differences while never causing the narrative to lose momentum. The first person we meet is Joe Hilditch (Bob Hoskins), who is introduced at the end of the opening credits. Hilditch is an old-fashioned man. His house is filled with things of the past: rotary phones, antique appliances, and a small, black-and-white TV on which he watches videotapes of a cooking show hosted by his mother (Arsinee Khanjian) more than 40 years ago. At first, Hilditch, who is well-liked by his co-workers at a factory where he holds the title of "catering manager," appears to be a well adjusted (if somewhat sad), middle aged man. But, as the story progresses, Egoyan peels back the onion-like layers of his personality to reveal something ominous, and perhaps even monstrous.
Meanwhile, the title character (Eileen Cassidy), a teenager from Ireland, has arrived in England searching for her boyfriend. She comes from a Catholic, Republican family and has been disowned for literally sleeping with the enemy. But she's a stranger with nothing more than a vague sense of geography to go on until she meets Hilditch, who offers her aid and advice. Soon, he has agreed to help her find her beloved Johnny, but we begin to suspect his motives, especially when we realize he has been videotaping his interaction with Felicia, and this isn't the first time he has offered a kind, sympathetic ear to a lonely, young girl.
One of the things that occurred to me as I was watching Felicia's Journey was how, with just a little tweaking, this could be made into a conventional Hollywood thriller. That version of Felicia's Journey would have been routine, obvious, bland, and exploitative. This one is impossible to predict, ingeniously constructed, and psychologically keen. In short, Egoyan has subverted the genre by focusing on characters rather than plot, and by allowing the tension to build gradually and naturally instead of using slick, manipulative devices to manufacture it. And, because he approaches the subject matter with sensitivity and tact, he is able to address a thorny issue like pedophilia.
Felicia's Journey grows more fascinating with every frame, as each of the characters comes into clearer focus and the narrative intensity builds. We begin to understand what motivates Hilditch and Felicia, and why they are the way they are. Yet, the deeper we get into the story, the more disquieting it becomes. Emotionally and spiritually, these people are not whole. They are lonely, broken, and in need of someone else. Yet the grim reality is that any kind of relationship between them, whether platonic or not, will lead inevitably to disaster. The climax, when it arrives, is searing, and completely consistent with what we have come to expect from these characters. There's no question that Hollywood would have re-written this.
A simplistic label like "villain" does not apply to Hilditch. He is a complex, multi-faceted individual. Even as we despise his actions, we feel pity for him. Egoyan shuns the easy way out of making Hilditch a cardboard bad guy. Instead, he painstakingly re-creates the man's childhood, and shows how a subtle pattern of neglect by his adored mother twisted and warped his thinking. Then, to deepen our uncertainty about the character, Egoyan has Hilditch act differently from the way we expect in certain key instances. In fact, we're not sure until the very end what his intentions are towards Felicia.
Bob Hoskins' performance here rivals his Mona Lisa work as the best of his career. The actor's gestures, vocal mannerisms (he speaks in a slow, deliberate fashion), and body language make Hilditch into a real person rather than a mere writer's construct inhabited by an adept performer. Hoskins is a recognizable face, but he submerges himself so effectively beneath the character's skin that we lose sight of the actor. And, on those occasions when the camera looks into Hilditch's haunted features and catches a glimpse of hell, one can only marvel at the intensity of Hoskins' work. There's no doubt that he deserves an Oscar nomination, but, like Ian Holm in The Sweet Hereafter, it's entirely possible that he will be overlooked. (Let's hope that Artisan does a better job campaigning for Hoskins in 2000 than Fine Line Features did for Holm in 1998.)
It would be unfair to single out Hoskins without mentioning his co-star, Elaine Cassidy. The young Irish actress, who has only one other feature to her credit (a 1996 comedy called The Sun, the Moon and the Stars), exhibits expert poise and ability in a role that requires great range and subtlety. She displays the necessary mix of naiveté, vulnerability, and emotional toughness that one would expect from someone like Felicia, who has defied her family in a moment of passion and now finds herself alone in a strange country. Like Mia Kirshner in Exotica or Sarah Polley in The Sweet Hereafter, Cassidy has no difficulty accepting the demands of a complex and conflicted character, and she is more than capable of holding her own in scenes with the far more experienced Hoskins.
While Hoskins and Cassidy have the bulk of the screen time (this is essentially a two-character movie), the strength of several supporting performances further bolsters Felicia's Journey. Arsinée Khanjian, Egoyan's wife (who has appeared in all of his features to date), has the important role of Hilditch's mother. In this capacity, she leaves a strong impression, even though she is only seen in clips from an old TV cooking show and in her son's flashbacks. Peter McDonald, one of the leads in 1997's I Went Down, plays Johnny, and veteran character actor Gerard McSorley is Felicia's strict, uncompromising father.
Many films with somber themes like the ones presented in Felicia's Journey insert occasional bursts of light comedy to relieve, however briefly, the dramatic tension. In general, this is not Egoyan's way. Both Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter acquired an element of their power from the director's unwillingness to break the tone. Moments of levity were few and far between in those films, as they are in Felicia's Journey. In fact, the only mildly humorous moment I can recall in this film has a dark underside. And it's not thrown in - it's an integral part of the way in which Egoyan chooses to reveal aspects of Hilditch's personality.
Mychael Danna, a longtime Egoyan contributor, provides an emphatic score that heightens rather than detracts from the overall atmosphere. Danna, whose history with the director stretches back to 1987's Family Viewing, uses a discordant, militaristic approach for Felicia's Journey that elevates the tension during key scenes without becoming distracting. Those who are unfamiliar with Danna's work may be surprised to learn that he is the same man who composed for Exotica, The Ice Storm, and The Sweet Hereafter - his work here is much different. Also contributing to the atmosphere is Egoyan's decision to shoot on location. The Canadian-based filmmaker went overseas for Felicia's Journey, filming the exterior scenes in Birmingham and Ireland, and doing the interiors at Shepperton Studios.
Admittedly, Felicia's Journey can be a troubling and difficult film to sit through, and there is a contrivance near the end that fails to convince 100%, but the production's overall ability to leave a lasting impression is undeniable. This is not the kind of facile motion picture that is easy to shake off after leaving the theater; it lingers and ripens in the mind for days afterwards. Once again, Atom Egoyan has boldly stepped forward, deepening and broadening his reputation as one of the world's best living filmmakers.
© 1999 James Berardinelli