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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Felicia's Journey
Artisan Entertainment
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.
90
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
So elegantly layered and emotionally restrained, it makes the horror at its center all the more disturbing.
88
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.
88
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
You leave Felicia's Journey appreciating it. A week later, you're astounded by it.
83
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;
83
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.
80
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
Visually, and in its soundtrack of overlapping voices, the film sustains a mood of heightened consciousness.
80
Film.com
Peter Brunette
It's an Egoyan film, and therefore by definition worth seeing.
80
TV Guide
Ken Fox
Newcomer Cassidy is excellent, and Hoskins gives a flawless performance.
80
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
One of the year's riskiest yet most effective films.
75
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.
75
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.
75
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
Seems like a genteel "Psycho."
75
USA Today
Mike Clark
A chilly oddball that's easier to admire than love.
75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Deep as a Canadian lake: Below the placid surface, menacing creatures swim around unseen.
75
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.
75
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.
70
Variety
Emanuel Levy
Mounted as an art film and is likely to divide both critics and the helmer's fans.
70
Village Voice
Amy Taubin
Egoyan, whose sophisticated eye is connected to a brain that seems, for the moment, to have gone dead.
70
Dallas Observer
Luke Y. Thompson
As far from crowd-pleasing as you're going to get these days.
70
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.
70
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.
70
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.
67
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
In this instance Egoyan's hereafter is a pale imitation of his yesterday.
63
New York Post
Jonathan Foreman
But given the potentially gripping subject matter, the film is fatally underedited: Every scene feels too long.
61
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.
60
TNT RoughCut
Tom Cappello
Haunting character study filled with fascinating personalities, robust images, and eccentric behaviors that will please art-house fans.
60
Slate
David Edelstein
Apart from a few choice flashbacks, the action is crawlingly linear--and opaque.
60
Film.com
Elizabeth Weitzman
Intelligent thriller--turns-- into an embarrassing gothic horror show.
50
Boston Globe
Jay Carr
Has more ambition than the usual serial killer film, but curiously less urgency.
50
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.
40
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.
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