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Report from the French Premiere of FELICIA'S JOURNEY.
One of our French reporters sent FATHER GEEK the following this morning, a review of the French Premiere of Atom Egoyan's FELICIA'S JOURNEY in beautiful Blois. Check it out...
Hello everybody!
I didn't get a chance to go to the Festival of Cannes this year, so I missed
a few good movies who are hitting the theaters right now to fight against
"Stars Wars" (it has just come out NOW in FRANCE - and you know why? 'cause
G. Lucas made a deal with the French "Win-a-price"-Toto-Lotto-Games; so they
had to produce some "Star Wars I cards" you rub to see if you have won any
money. Of course, Lucas and the French government are the only ones to make
some money out of it). Kitano, Lynch, Jarmusch (marvellous "Ghost Dog"),
only nice movies right now around here.
Well, I always liked Atom Egoyan, from his first pics - "Family viewing",
"The Adjuster", "Kalendar" - until his recent Russel Banks - adaption. Well,
I got a little scared by that one, cause of its conventions and classic
structures, by the huge camera-moves and the famous actors in it. That's not
MY Atom Egoyan, who I like him... At least the plot was cool and I could
find some of Egoyan's favorite subjects (the secret, the family, etc). How
happy was I to get a free pass to a big premiere of his latest flick in
Blois/France, especially because the movie isn't due to come out before
january 2000 in France.
The theater was full, especially elderly people. A little speech by the
owner and the distributors and the light went out. Here we went for
"Felicia's trip".
Well, I loved the beginning : Bob Hopkins IS just a great actor and his play
in this movie is very well...well , at the beginning. He plays a nice boss
of a huge society in England, more preoccupied to supervise the good efforts
of the society's kitchen than to take care of the serious stuff. It's a
nice, elderly fellow, calm and smily. The first signs of some troubles are
shown back at his place, when he prepares dinner. That sequence is just the
best part of the movie : Hopkins in front of an old TV in his HUGE kitchen
watching an old cooking-TV-show hosted by Egoyan's wife, who is just
hilarious with her french accent. I won't give away too much for all the
people who won't listen to me and just suffer this movie until it's
ridiculous end.
Next we discover Felicia, an Irish girl coming over to England to search her
boyfriend. Yeah, well, that stupid girl doesn't even think a minute to have
a look in the yellow pages to find out the name of the society where her
friend is supposed to be employed. Instead she's walking around for hours in
a huge industrial zone and ask around for that stupid society. She meets
Hopkins, who will take care of her.
Of course, Hopkins isn't what he seems to be and we learn everything about
his traumatism and troubles by some flash-backs of his childhood. Same for
Felicia, which keeps more than one secret.
The problem of this movie is that it's very long and it repeats itself. I
won't charge any American movies, but Egoyan seems to head towards Hollywood
by his "fast-food"-structure meaning telling over and over again what
happened and explaining the most little and insignificant detail the average
audience has guessed hours ago.
The plot has some "déjà vu" effects, is loaded with cliches and is highly
unlikely. (Hoskins digging a grave and finding a wallet he put there 40
years earlier just to remember him what a bad boy he is...).
The major problem is that Egoyan gives away the "whodunnit" too early, so
the audience guesses already the plot from the beginning until the end.
That's why the first 20 minutes are so good : cause we know something is not
right, but we can't guess what. It has been a strength in Egoyan's other
movies to find out the secrets of the characters near the end of the movie
and now that he tells us from the beginning on what is wrong, we get bored
by a pretty light plot. This movie remebers me a bad Hitchcock flick, not
only by the application of the "whodunnit", but also because of a hell of
ressemblances with "Psycho" - but we are very far away from the quality and
suspense of tht movie. I reproach Egoyan as well to try to put some of the
"English/Irish"- conflict in it; it is very far away from his native Canada
and you can see it on screen (especially if you have seen some Jim Sheridan
stuff, which represents much better that conflict).
NO, there is nothing to save from that movie; it really stinks. Egoyan puts
some of his characteristic recipes in it (secret, parody of the 50's,
video,...), but this time it doesn't "support" the plot. There are just a
bonus, seeming to remember the times far away, when he used to do movies
with little money, but great ideas, wasn't paid by the festival of Cannes to
finish his movie on time for the official presentation and when he didn't
had secretly an eye on the North-American market.
Xcuse for the grammatical errors of this text,
B.HAPPY
Gildas
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Saw it last month at the Toronto film fest and I didn't have any problems with it. Bob Hoskins is just amazing!!! I hope he's not forgotten come oscar time because i have a feeling he may. This film is structured similar to Egoyen's other films. It is indeed slow, but very compelling.
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So you're saying you didn't like Sweet Hereafter? Wow. I just don't get that. I don't recall any really big actors in it either. Well, Maury Chaykin's a big guy, but he's always entertaining. The only "name" actor was Ian Holm. Not exactly big. I need an explanation: Exactly what didn't you like about this? The slowly unfolding story? The characters with depth? The bus going into the lake? But I rant. Don't forget to mention Exotica, directed by Atom Egoyan. You see? Sometimes films come out of Canada that aren't a big pile of suck.
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After EXOTICA, I quickly proclaimed Atom Egoyan to be the finest director working today; he only cemented his status with THE SWEET HEREAFTER. Should he stumble with FELICIA'S JOURNEY..... well, damn! He's human! After all, Anthony Minghella, in between the sublime TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLY and his masterpiece, THE ENGLISH PATIENT, gave us one hell of a stinker in MR. WONDERFUL. And if you want to invoke Hitchcock, I needn't have to point out THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (remake,) FAMILY PLOT, or THE WRONG MAN, among others. Sure, I'd hate to see Egoyan end this decade, where, IMO, he has reigned supreme, with a less-than-masterful work, but I'll still maintain that nobody had a better run in the '90's than him. That is, except for David Kellogg, who opened it with COOL AS ICE and closed it with INSPECTOR GADGET. Now, that's what I call directin'!
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My sister was one of the finalists to play Felicia... she met Egoyan and Peter Macdonald, so I was seeing other stuff when I watched FJ. To be honest, I liked it, but found Egoyans insistence on using those LOOOONGG LOOONGG takes wearying after the first hour. Friends who've read the book (I'm just starting it) say that it completely misses William Trevor's central theme, and Egoyan's film does seem a little empty at times. Anyone else find the ending infuriating?
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Have you noticed that all the talkbacks are screwed up? All the new posts seem to go right to the top. Strange, man.
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It is certainly problematic when someone reviews a film and fails to understand the why
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