December 25, 1999 -- Felicia's Journey is a strange film that makes you cringe because it forces you walk this path inside the skull of a serial killer. It made me feel as if some of the slime had come off on me.

Bob Hoskins (who appeared in "Cousin Bette") stars as the killer, Joseph Ambrose Hilditch, a catering chef. Hilditch becomes fixated on a beautiful young girl from Ireland, Felicia, (Elaine Cassidy of "The Sun, the Moon and the Stars"). As she is slowly drawn into Hilditch's snare, we find out what a monster Hilditch really is. The only question becomes, will she escape, or not?

Felicia has come to Manchester looking for her lover. She has heard he has joined the British Army. If that is true, she will be disowned by her family, so she needs to find out where he is and what he is doing. He told her he was working at a factory that makes lawn mowers, but she hasn't heard from him in some time.

We slowly learn more about Felicia's background from flashbacks. We also learn more about Hilditch's childhood and about the women he has killed. We glimpse images from the killer's past, we see pieces of the puzzle that makes up his mind, but the pieces really don't fit together too well. It becomes a waltz of two sad, lonely people, killer and prey, dancing to the same tune.

I thought I knew how this movie was going to end about half way through it. As it turns out, the ending is very unusual. It is far from being ordinary. Bob Hoskins, a very fine actor, turns in an excellent performance as does Cassidy. Director Atom Egoyan ("The Sweet Hereafter") does a good job of pasting a lot of flashbacks together to make a story. It is not a very entertaining movie, but it is well-made and well-acted. It rates a B.

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