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Double Oscar nominee Atom Egoyan's (The Sweet Hereafter) latest film begins with a great long shot that travels through the sumptuously appointed first floor of a mansion before it finally comes to rest on a man preparing an intricate dish along with a French cooking show on TV. The portly man is Joseph Hilditch (Bob Hoskins, Cousin Bette), the overseer of a large industrial kitchen in England, and the giant home was owned by his deceased mother Gala, who also happens to be the French chef on the television.
We learn that the friendly Hilditch (think Ed Asner with a weave) is a stickler for the fine art of cuisine, chasing away the salesman of a vending machine company because his product would result in the loss of jobs. Hilditch explains that food needs to be prepared by human hands. Each evening, Hilditch cooks a gourmet meal in his mother's kitchen while watching videotapes of her television show. There is a huge stockpile of brand-new kitchen appliances at his disposal, each bearing a picture of Gala (Arsinée Khanjian, Irma Vep and Egoyan's real-life wife). We see flashbacks of a chunky young Hilditch playing second fiddle to his mother's career.
Meanwhile, a young, pretty Irish girl named Felicia (newcomer Elaine Cassidy) has just traveled from her native County Cork to Birmingham, England. She's alone, pregnant and has no identification. Felicia's excursion has one singular mission – to find the love of her life and father of her child, Johnny (Peter McDonald, I Went Down). The problem is that Felicia only knows that Johnny may have a manufacturing job somewhere in Birmingham. We learn through several flashbacks that Felicia's father (Gerard McSorley, The Boxer) has threatened to disown her if she left home for Johnny, an Irish lad that jumped sides and joined the British Army. Think of the widow-peaked Felicia as a physical cross between Olivia Williams, Molly Parker and Parker Posey.
The forlorn Felicia meets the congenial Hilditch, who offers to help the lass find her dreamboat. I won't reveal the payoff, but if you raised a red flag at the thought of a man that watches videotape of his dead mom while living in her house, you'll get the idea. The result is a twisted mixture of Remains of the Day and The Silence of the Lambs. Hoskins is completely believable as the helpful gentleman with a big secret, and the love-blind Cassidy portrays sufficient innocence in her titular role. Is Hoskins' performance good enough to nab an Oscar nomination? They thought so in Cannes, where the film was overly praised earlier this year. Expect a big push from Journey's distributor Artisan – the studio is rolling in cash after The Blair Witch Project.
Egoyan, who adapted the screenplay from William Trevor's novel Fools of Fortune, slowly builds up the suspense in the film without using gimmicky tricks or graphically depicting violence. And the effect is downright creepy. His use of ‘50s music – especially Malcolm Vaughn's `You Are My Special Angel' – helps to add to the glowing, dream-like quality of the film. Credit cinematographer Paul Sarossy (Affliction) for much of Journey's radiance, as well as Egoyan's transformation between the lush, green scenes in Ireland to the sooty gray of Birmingham's industrial factories.
1:56 - PG-13 for mature thematic elements and related disturbing images
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