Product Details

• Actors: Bob Hoskins, Arsinée Khanjian, Elaine Cassidy, Sheila Reid, Nizwar Karanj
• Directors: Atom Egoyan
• Writers: Atom Egoyan, William Trevor
• Producers: Bruce Davey, Karen Glasser, Paul Tucker, Ralph Kamp, Robert Lantos
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Language: English, French
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Live / Artisan
• VHS Release Date: May 16, 2000
• Run Time: 116 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00003CWPZ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #490,886 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Like Hitchcock, Atom Egoyan envisions family life as a potential hotbed of literal or figurative violence and incest. In Felicia's Journey, Egoyan's adaptation of William Trevor's shattering novel, one dreads to imagine what TV-cook mom (Arsinée Khanjian) did to so damage her pudgy son that grown- up Hilditch (Bob Hoskins) still prepares meals in perfect unison with faded videotapes of her show--and, as we eventually discover, often takes more sinister trips down Memory Lane. Distant kin to Psycho's Tony Perkins, Hoskins's troll is so obsessive, so traumatized, his every short-armed, fat-handed gesture and sing-song utterance is precisely calculated to keep reality safely buried.

Egoyan's movies often seem located underwater, in some surreal dreamscape where one's breath is perpetually suspended while a slow horror seeps ever deeper under the skin. Helpless, transfixed, one watches as his characters drive inexorably toward mined intersections where lives and souls may be lost or redeemed. When Hilditch's path crosses, diverges from, and finally coincides with that of young, pregnant Felicia (Elaine Cassidy)--an Irish innocent searching for her errant boyfriend--it leads to terrible epiphany for these fellow travelers. Trouble is, creepy Hilditch and too-naive Felicia come up a bit short in the psychological complexity department, so by film's end, revelatory payoffs are mostly penny ante. Felica's Journey tours familiar Egoyan territory--an industrialized wasteland full of hungry hearts--but this latest fairy tale (think perverse variations on Hansel and Gretel) isn't in the same league with such "family values" masterpieces as Exotica or The Sweet Hereafter. --Kathleen Murphy

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars for movie sophisticates only, July 18, 2000

By 

Gary R. Lemons (Scottsdale, Arizona USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Felicia's Journey [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I really think this is one of the best movies to come along in years. It is mysterious, creepy, and alarming but somehow it is also funny, endearing, and charming. How did the director combine so many different moods in one movie? This movie is a character development and mood type movie, not a plot type, so don't expect your typical American blood and guts killer type movie! Many people will not like this movie because they are so conditioned to nonstop action. This movie gives you time to reflect and enjoy the intriguing vivuals and eerie sound track. I loved it!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great film!, July 15, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Felicia's Journey (DVD)

This film was beautifully made, and the music is beautiful, too. Director Atom Egoyan's twist of the TV chef mother really adds some cinematic taste to the movie, though it does seem to confuse the story and the formation of Hilditch's personality. The ending is good. Personally, I think it is better than in the book. Bob Hoskins' performance is superb! This movie is a must-see only for his performance. I wonder why he was not even nominated for the Oscar. This reminds me of another mystery in 1987 when Hoskins swept almost every award with his performance in Neil Jordan's "Mona Lisa", then lost in the Oscar to Paul Newman's "The Color of Money"? Elaine Cassidy (Felicia) is a novice in film making, but surely not a novice in acting. She is great in the movie, too.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Felicias Journey - The Movie, June 12, 2009

By 

Martha A. Bailey - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Felicia's Journey (DVD)

Well, I have to say, I watched this movie in a rather unusual way. A few weeks ago, on TV, I saw the very ending (about the last 5 minutes) and I thought, "Egad, what IS this movie about?" Well, now I just finished watching it again only this time,from the beginning. (I just happened upon it while channel surfing.)

I have to say Hoskins is brilliant. I can't imagine any other actor doing any better than he in this role. You are convinced he is totally "off the track" as you see him preparing those impressive convoluted meals while watching hid dead mother's cooking show re-runs.

As he manipulates the turkey skin and pierces the trussing needle through the rack of lamb there is no doubt he is full of hate and revulsion for his mother but also filled with an obsession about her for which he has little control.

He is at once, menacing, charming and pathetic and his inner demons are juxtaposed alongside Elaine Cassidy's character's innocence and childlike trusting nature.

I thought the movie was very well done, VERY unusual and a suspenseful thriller in a sort of Hitchcock genre but without the blood and gore.