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Felicia's Journey
Artisan Entertainment


8.0

based on 34 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 2 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for mature thematic elements and related disturbing images

Starring Claire Benedict, Brid Brennan, Elaine Cassidy, and Sidney Cole

A young woman (Cassidy) travels to England from Ireland to find her boyfriend (McDonald). She is befriended by a lonely middle-aged catering manager (Hoskins) who it turns out has befriended and abused more than a dozen young women.

GENRE(S):	Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Atom Egoyan William Trevor (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Atom Egoyan
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: May 16, 2000 Video: May 16, 2000 Theatrical: November 12, 1999
RUNNING TIME:	116 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Canada / UK

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A rare example of a literary film that preserves the best of its source while creatively filling up on it.

100

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

Compulsion, self-deception and the slippery nature of evil are explored with fidelity and supreme control .

100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Egoyan's cinematic brilliance shows up intermittently in this atmospheric thriller, which gains most of its punch from Hoskins's surprisingly subtle performance.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

So elegantly layered and emotionally restrained, it makes the horror at its center all the more disturbing.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

In this, Alfred Hitchcock's centenary year, Felicia's Journey so startlingly channels the obsessions of the late director that it might be the greatest Hitchcock movie the master of suspense never made.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

You leave Felicia's Journey appreciating it. A week later, you're astounded by it.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Like a dowser who can divine hidden sources of water, Atom Egoyan has a talent for locating the dream-state perversity that runs just under the surface of everyday life;

Portland Oregonian Diana Abu-Jaber

In this film, shadowy seams of brutality, loss and grief are traced beneath bright layers of tree boughs, children's laughter and high, empty windows.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Visually, and in its soundtrack of overlapping voices, the film sustains a mood of heightened consciousness.

Film.com Peter Brunette

It's an Egoyan film, and therefore by definition worth seeing.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Newcomer Cassidy is excellent, and Hoskins gives a flawless performance.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

One of the year's riskiest yet most effective films.

San Francisco Examiner G. Allen Johnson

The success of Felicia's Journey lies in the work of the steady and here understated Hoskins, who gives one of his best performances, and young Cassidy, who displays a weary maturity even through her deer-in-the-headlights character.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

Has difficulty reaching a resolution. In the final half-hour, the film becomes almost hysterically out of sync with its prior quiet reserve.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Seems like a genteel "Psycho."

USA Today Mike Clark

A chilly oddball that's easier to admire than love.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Deep as a Canadian lake: Below the placid surface, menacing creatures swim around unseen.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

There's tremendous maturity and skill in Felicia's Journey but also a sense of impending horror that's bound to repel some audience members -- even though the violence is all implied.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

All of Egoyan's movies have revolved around characters with damaged, fragile psyches, but rarely have they been illustrated as deftly -- and as gracefully -- as in Felicia's Journey.

Variety Emanuel Levy

Mounted as an art film and is likely to divide both critics and the helmer's fans.

Village Voice Amy Taubin

Egoyan, whose sophisticated eye is connected to a brain that seems, for the moment, to have gone dead.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

As far from crowd-pleasing as you're going to get these days.

Film.com Ernest Hardy

Egoyan and Hoskins fans will definitely want to see this film. Others will feel their fingernails grow as they watch it.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Everything seems to fall into place according to earlier Egoyan films, which suggests that you're likelier to enjoy this one if you haven't seen the others.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

As is typical with Egoyan, the structure is complicated and the layers of cinematic technique and texture are even more so.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

In this instance Egoyan's hereafter is a pale imitation of his yesterday.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

But given the potentially gripping subject matter, the film is fatally underedited: Every scene feels too long.

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

It's yet another serial killer movie, a plot element that by this point in time, far from being disturbing or fascinating, is just plain dull.

TNT RoughCut Tom Cappello

Haunting character study filled with fascinating personalities, robust images, and eccentric behaviors that will please art-house fans.

Slate David Edelstein

Apart from a few choice flashbacks, the action is crawlingly linear--and opaque.

Film.com Elizabeth Weitzman

Intelligent thriller--turns-- into an embarrassing gothic horror show.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Has more ambition than the usual serial killer film, but curiously less urgency.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

As with all of Egoyan's films, this new one comes cloaked in an atmosphere of dread, but for the first time there's no real purpose, intellectual or emotional, to all the free-floating anxiety.

Time Richard Corliss

A movie this implausible shouldn't be this dull.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Pat C. gave it a 7:
Hoskins portrays the mama's boy from hell. You know, Hoskins is a brilliant actor who doesn't get enough credit. Cassidy is a vulnerable girl looking for a father figure. They meet, and Egoyan proceeds to illuminate the social debris left by dysfunctional parent-child relationships. Unfortunately, it rings so true that such an interaction would be destabilizing in its dullness, which Egoyan faithfully reports.

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Felicia's Journey Artisan Entertainment

Felicia's Journey
Artisan Entertainment