Felicia's Journey Reviewed by Bruce Cantwell Brazil wasn't the first Bob Hoskins film I saw, but the third. It was the first film where I could understand a word he was saying. I simply couldn't penetrate his cockney in The Long Good Friday or Mona Lisa. That doesn't mean I couldn't understand his characters. Hoskins is a forthright screen actor. He can inhabit his compact frame with a ferocious mob boss, a compassionate chauffer, a duct repairman or a foil for Roger Rabbit with imperceptible effort. Felicia's Journey played the Cannes film festival, there was a buzz about his performance. I liked the idea of him teaming with Atom Egoyan whose tragic The Sweet Hereafter drew a heartwrenching performance from Ian Holm. Listening to William Trevor's book on tape, I could tell the role of factory caterer/serial killer Joseph Ambrose Hilditch was made for Hoskins. Mr Hilditch's hands are small, seeming not to belong to the rest of him; deft, delicate fingers that can insert a battery into a watch or tidily truss a chicken, this latter a useful accomplishment, for of all things in the world Mr Hilditch enjoys eating. Like his predecessors Anthony Perkins (Psycho) and Barry Foster (Frenzy) he seems outwardly affable enough when he's with his coworkers or offering avuncular advice to wayward girls like Felicia (Elaine Cassidy). Atom Egoyan dispenses with the sensationalism of Hitchcock's shower scene and staircase sequences. He credits us with the wherewithal to conjure our own violent images to accompany Hilditch's collection of videotaped victims. On the other hand, he doesn't rely on a convoluted psychiatrist's explanation to explain to us where Hilditch went wrong. We simply watch him go wrong this time.	Warning: include() [function.include]: URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in /home/bruce20/public_html/myenvoy/movies/reviews/felicia.php3 on line 50 Warning: include(http://myenvoy.com/movies/side.php3) [function.include]: failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /home/bruce20/public_html/myenvoy/movies/reviews/felicia.php3 on line 50 Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening 'http://myenvoy.com/movies/side.php3' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php') in /home/bruce20/public_html/myenvoy/movies/reviews/felicia.php3 on line 50
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