Felicia's Journey
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Movie Reviews of Felicia's Journey
Movie Review: Subtle portrait of a killer and a girl
Summary: 3 Stars
Where Silence of the Lambs might bang you over the head with its portrayal of a madman, Felicia's Journey is far more quiet but just as deft. Elaine Cassidy is very sharp and sincere as Felicia, and it is her preformance that holds the film together. Hoskin's, on the other hand, handles his character with less ease. He seems a little uneasy with Hilditch, the mother obsessed killer, and in his interview included on the disk, he re-affirms my feeling that he found Hilditch "creepy". So, his portrayal comes off all creepy and less human.Atom Egoyan is a film maker i never really liked in his early work, witch had too much of a art house stink to them for my taste, but with his recent outings (far more conventional ones) The Sweet Hereafeter and Journey, he has vastly impressed as a fine cinematic storyteller, who never forces the subject upon the viewer. He just presents a good story, in a simple manner, for all those willing to listen and watch.
The DVD is of good quality. Looks great. The extras are fine but negligible. All of the cast interviews are already in the short featurette, save a few brief comments. It would have been better just to make the featurette longer and include the interviews in whole. Hilditch's video collection just offers basically what we see in the movie, only with very annoying black fades breaking up the conversation. A video fast forward or tape break would have looked better than the fades.
Journey by no means breaks new ground in storytelling or subject matter, but it succeeds as a fine tale of a innocent young girl and a deadly man, who both are confused with how to function in this world.
Movie Review: IS ALL OF THIS TAMPERING REALLY NECESSARY...?
Summary: 3 Stars
To start with, I have to say that if you haven't seen this film, PLEASE read William Trevor's novel first. You must experience Trevor's luminous writing before enduring what Atom Egoyan has done to it.That being said, there are a lot of good things about this film. The cast is superb -- Elaine Cassidy is perfect as Felicia, and a better choice than Bob Hoskins as Mr. Hilditch I can't imagine. Both of them turn in memorable performances here.
The thing that makes it impossible for me to give this film a higher recommendation is Egoyan's inexplicable urge to add elements to Trevor's story. Without writing a 'spoiler' review, I'll just mention that the entire 'videotape' take on Hilditch's 'memory lane', as well as the cooking videos he watches are products of Egoyan's imagination -- they were not present in the novel, and it certainly didn't lack for their non-existence. It annoys me that Egoyan couldn't leave well enough alone -- and it makes me wonder if he succumbs to this temptation with every film he's done. I'm about to read Russell Banks' novel 'The sweet hereafter' to find out...
Movie Review: Author! Ending Needed!
Summary: 3 Stars
For the first four-fifths of this movie, it was one of the creepiest, scariest films I've ever seen. A souffle of understated horror, acted to perfection by Bob Hoskins and Elaine Cassidy. But then, plop, the souffle falls in. The screenwriter simply could not think of a way to end the film. He set it up for the first four-fifths, and then, cliches upon cliches. Doesn't any director read the entire script before starting the filming? Or do they just read up to 80% and then want to be surprised by whatever ending the actors come up with? Why do I give this film as many as three stars? Because it was so well done, for a while. Not even a drop of blood. No corpses. No maiming. It delivers the horror by the sheer cinematography and understatement. Bottom line: strictly for moviegoers who want to see good horror-film-making technique, but stay away if you don't like to be disappointed by the plot.Movie Review: People disappoint us sometimes. So does this film.
Summary: 2 Stars
Was there a point to the deliberate slowness and cliché simplicity of this movie? Perhaps that if you could really look deep into the soul of another person, you wouldn't learn much about why they are the way they are? (Not much good, anyway...) That's how I feel after watching "Felicia's Journey" - let down, frustrated, and maybe even a little manipulated. But hey, goes the old bromide, that's life! So perhaps we can credit Atom Egoyan with a certain understanding of the human condition. But is that worth making (or seeing) a movie about? You might as well blow two hours at the corner bar. I saw Hoskins' character coming a mile away - buttoned-up, super-methodical, funereal in speech and manner even when trying to be comforting to Cassidy's waif, his every word and act a ritual we've seen before. (Oh, and don't forget the mama complex! Lesson to Gen X+1: Move out by age 21 or you, too, may become a murderer.) As for Cassidy, she was at least a pleasure to watch, but she, too, had no uniqueness about her character. Worse still, her motivations (if she even had any) remained a mystery, and not a very interesting one. Except for her delicate Irish beauty, she might as well have been the dressed turkey on Hoskins' kitchen counter.
Movie Review: People disappoint us sometimes. So does this film.
Summary: 2 Stars
Was there a point to the deliberate slowness and cliché simplicity of this movie? Perhaps that if you could really look deep into the soul of another person, you wouldn't learn much about why they are the way they are? (Not much good, anyway...) That's how I feel after watching "Felicia's Journey" - let down, frustrated, and maybe even a little manipulated. But hey, goes the old bromide, that's life! So perhaps we can credit Atom Egoyan with a certain understanding of the human condition. But is that worth making (or seeing) a movie about? You might as well blow two hours at the corner bar. I saw Hoskins' character coming a mile away - buttoned-up, super-methodical, funereal in speech and manner even when trying to be comforting to Cassidy's waif, his every word and act a ritual we've seen before. (Oh, and don't forget the mama complex! Lesson to Gen X+1: Move out by age 21 or you, too, may become a murderer.) As for Cassidy, she was at least a pleasure to watch, but she, too, had no uniqueness about her character. Worse still, her motivations (if she even had any) remained a mystery, and not a very interesting one. Except for her delicate Irish beauty, she might as well have been the dressed turkey on Hoskins' kitchen counter.