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Felicia's
Journey
****
Cinema
Releases - October 8, 1999
Rated on a 4-star
scale. Canada/UK/USA. Written and directed by Atom Egoyan; based on the novel
by William Trevor.
Starring Elaine Cassidy,
Bob Hoskins, Gerard McSorely, Arsinée Khanijan, Peter McDonald, Brid
Brennan, Danny Turner.
Most psychological thrillers will supply a whiny
star with frivolous problems, then pit him against a nutcase in the last
act. That's hardly living up to the promise of the genre title. Ironically,
the films that earn the label don't actually carry it -- "Felicia's
Journey", for example, is billed as a "drama", and ranks with such
"classics" as "Psycho" and "Silence of the Lambs".
The film was made by Atom Egoyan, the Canadian
director of "Exotica" and "The Sweet Hereafter" whose films soak into the
mind and linger with the insistence of spectacular dreams. His approach to
this story shows great awareness that in this kind of piece, the thrills
should rely on emotional involvement. We are introduced to Felicia (Elaine
Cassidy), a pregnant young woman from rural Ireland seeking through the factories
of Birmingham for her child's father. Her staunchly nationalist father has
told her disgustedly that the lad has joined the British army, but this seems
unthinkable, so she presses on.
During her fruitless search, Felicia keeps
encountering the helpful Mr Hilditch (Bob Hoskins), a stout, wide-eyed man
whose soft, nasal Brummie accent and docile demeanour convey pleasant innocence.
The pair become close, and their conversations are soon deeply personal --
Hilditch tells of his hospitalised wife, dying of cancer, and Felicia looks
to the gent for advice.
We the audience know Hilditch doesn't have a wife.
He does, however, have many video recordings that capture his angry obsessions
-- one of which involves the sick manipulation and brutal ending of vulnerable
girls' lives.
As the story's central relationship develops,
we're supplied with more information about Hilditch's dark secrets. Egoyan's
presentation is absorbing and compelling, his inimitable genius for arranging
sounds and images letting us know exactly what characters are thinking, how
these thoughts play parts in the contexts of their lives and why we should
care. Elaine Cassidy, open-faced and easy to identify with, is an effective
compass through the picture -- her quiet ambiguity reflecting our initial
trepidation, her progression of emotion and understanding carrying us right
into the explosive terror of the climax. Hoskins, giving one of his great
performances, is studied intensely by the camera, so we're denied an escape
from the complicated hybrid of pity and fear we feel for him.
Egoyan, who trusts the audience to make conclusions
of deep recognition, creates a suitable atmosphere to provoke our minds.
Not only do the textures and tones of his sets and props appear completely
real, but it's taken him, an outsider, to capture on film Irish countryside
and English industrial areas as they actually appear. Native filmmakers seem
to think grainy, stationary shots automatically create authenticity, and
here their argument is crushed.
This is not the only 1999 film littered with cries
of pain, but it is the best. Joel Schumacher's "8mm" explored the wretched
depths of humanity, but ultimately sunk below them with its shallow,
rabble-rousing violence. When "Felicia's Journey" degenerates into mad anguish,
it's the only inevitable conclusion, and we wince from dread of the consequences
for the people involved, rather than subjection to ugly gore. Egoyan tells
a chilling and devastating tale -- a path to hell paved with bad intentions
-- and his method is not only honest, but mesmerising.
COPYRIGHT©
1999 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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