Felicia's Journey is a 1999 British-Canadian psychological thriller film written and directed by Atom Egoyan and starring Elaine Cassidy and Bob Hoskins. It is based on the prize-winning 1994 novel of the same name by William Trevor. It was entered into the 1999 Cannes Film Festival and won four Genie Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay.
Plot[]
Felicia is an Irish teenager whose boyfriend, Johnny, has left to join the British Army after impregnating her. Taking a ferry to England, she begins a hopeless search for the lawnmower factory in Birmingham where she believes Johnny now works. Instead, she encounters Joseph Hilditch, a catering manager at a factory who is also the son of an eccentric TV chef of decades past. Hilditch regularly watches the old programmes of his presumably-deceased mother while he cooks her recipes and collects material about her. He offers to help Felicia find Johnny; however, his motives for doing so are initially unclear, and it is subsequently suggested through flashback sequences that he has befriended but then turned on vulnerable young women in the past.
Hilditch offers to drive Felicia to what he suggests is the factory she is looking for, which is on the way to the hospital where the unmarried Hilditch claims he is going to visit his wife. Felicia fails to find Johnny at the factory; while she is out of the car, Hilditch goes through her bags and steals her money. Subsequently, Felicia comes across a Jamaican Christian witness who offers Felicia a free overnight stay at a church hostel. While staying at the hostel, Felicia discovers that her money has gone and, after appearing to accuse others at the home of stealing the money, goes to Hilditch's house.
Meanwhile, Hilditch has traced Johnny to the barracks where he is serving, but does not disclose this to Felicia. He tells her that his wife has died and that she suggested that Felicia abort her unborn child. After the abortion, which Hilditch pays for, he takes her back to his house and gives her an overdose of sleeping pills. As she passes out, he explains that he has 'helped' many other vulnerable girls but 'lays them to rest' when they decide it is time to leave him.
While Hilditch is digging out in his garden, the Jamaican witness and a new convert enter his yard and begin to preach. The Christian reveals that Felicia had told her about Hilditch, saying he was a kind but troubled man. Hilditch feels flashes of guilt and confesses that he did, in fact, steal from and cheat Felicia so that she would return to him. He explains that he feels lonely, and the horrified Christians leave. Upstairs in the house, Felicia awakens from her sleep and struggles down the stairs. Hilditch finds her trying to escape but allows her to leave. He later walks to his kitchen, where he hangs himself with a pair of tights.
Cast[]
- Bob Hoskins – Joe Hilditch
- Arsinée Khanjian – Gala
- Elaine Cassidy – Felicia
- Sheila Reid – Iris
- Nizwar Karanj – Sidney
- Ali Yassine – Customs Officer
- Peter McDonald – Johnny Lysaght
- Kriss Dosanjh – Salesman
- Gerard McSorley – Felicia's Father
- Marie Stafford – Felicia's Great Grandmother (as Máire Stafford)