MovieChat Forums > Felicia's Journey (1999) Discussion > I HOPE SOMEONE CAN ANSWER THIS!!!

I HOPE SOMEONE CAN ANSWER THIS!!!

posted 22 years ago by chaplins_charlie
26 replies | jump to latest

I have seen this movie three times and I still don't throughly understand it that well. I mean, it's obvious that this movie is about Hilditch, a lonely but respectable middle-aged man with a deep dark secret. He finds comfort through cooking and eating. But he also seeks love that he never had.He looks for love and companionship in desperate and little boyish way. As the movie goes on, he befriends a lot of young girls but kills them when they want to leave him. We then see a young girl, Felicia, who is on a journey to find her boyfriend who impregnates and then leaves her to join the British army. She finds a friend in Hilditch and accepts his offer to sleep in his house and let him help her find the boyfriend. What I don't understand is the ending for the most part. Why did he kill himself? What was with that annoying Jamaican lady? Why did he let Felicia go and not kill her or at least beg her to stay if he was so darn lonely? I hope anyone reading this can help me. However, I must say that even though I'm not a Bob Hoskins fan, he did a beyond excellent job in this movie. I really liked him on this one and thought it was his finest performance in anything he's ever done!!

What's an inside straight??

[–] ProfessorX 22 years ago

I think Hilditch killed himself for one of three reasons: Felicia escaped him and could go to the police and he'd be arrested etc. Or, he is so overcome by guilt for murderering those girls that he feels that he cna't live on. Thirdly, he evidently misses his late mother, and indeed as something of an Oedipal obssession with her, and so he feels that he cannot live without her. Perhaps he is so ashamed what he has done and frightened that his (dead) mother will be disappointed by him, that he kills himself out of guilt.

[–] Tara-chan 21 years ago

I think that when the two preacher ladies came to Hilditch's house and started to preach to him, i think that he took that in. Because when he found Felicia trying to get out the front door, he started telling her what the ladies told him. And i think that's why he let her go. "The healing will commence." and all that stuff. And i think that he hung himself because it finally hit him that what he was doing with all these girls was terribly wrong, and he couldn't live with himself knowing of what he has done.

[–] 666Night999 21 years ago

He also passes on his misery to another person, thus making his own journey complete. He can never outrun his mother's grasp on himself. He is forever haunted by her treatment of him, even after her death. His obsessive watching of her cooking shows illustrates the tight psychological grip she still has on him.

The "healing will now commence" statement is about his transfer of misery and sorrow onto Felicia. He befriends her, gives her false stories to evoke sympathy from her, convinces her to get an abortion, drugs her. When Hilditch has successfully broken this poor girl, he can either kill her and start anew with his next victim, or end his own life, thus ceases the cycle of torment and death that he doles out and that seeps into his own harried and troubled thoughts.

Two ways to choose, on a razor's edge. Remain behind, go straight ahead. Joy Division

[–] linkin_911 21 years ago

SPOILERS

I just saw this movie and thought it was pretty good, but one thing started bothering me. Why does Felicia write to Johnny's mom that her grandchild has been born? She had an abortion so the baby couldn't have been born, right?
Is she still so desperate to find Johnny that she lies to his mom, or what?
I sort of got the impression that she realised that Johnny wasn't what she thought he was, so that baby part is just something I don't understand.

-Stop saying okay all the time! Okay?!-

[–] 666Night999 21 years ago

I think it's partly due to Felicia's continued victimization. She feels guilty about getting an abortion, and she wants things to appear normal. She also feels that the news may help to find Johnny. If Johnny gets news of a baby being born, he might come out of hiding. Felicia came across as a very naive girl, one whom Hilditch knows all to easily how to manipulate, so she may feel that manipulation passing through her in some weird way. That's all i have for you right now. If I think of more, i'll post it.

[–] LeKataja 21 years ago

I might be wrong about this, but my first recollection of that scene stubbornly says that Felicia's voice-over went like: "Mrs. Lysaght, Your grandson was never born.." That would remove the controversy, wouldn't it? I also felt like that the letter to Johnny's mother showed the way how Felicia had matured as a character after the unfortunate experience with Mr. Hilditch.. "Inside a murderer there was a soul just like the rest of us" etc. (it probably didn't go just like this but close enough)

If I remember that letter part right, the line could also be a bit of a jibe towards Johnny's mother, since probably in the end she might've been happy to have been a grandmother...

Ich weiss jetzt was kein Engel weiss

[–] GEERONIMO 21 years ago

She does tell mrs. Lysight "Your grandson has never been born" but I'm not sure that removes the controversy. Ireland is a strong catholic country and I believe getting an abortion is regarded even worse than getting pregnant before marriage. She herself has been a murderer too...

I don't know how to interpret the ending. Was it happy, as she saw a mother with her daughter, and saw that there was hope for her? Or, we all saw the blood stain when she is in mr. hilditch's bed, could it be possible she cannot have babies anymore? That would make the end extremely sad...

[–] nsnces 11 years ago

I think the would-be grandmother would think Felicia was talking about a miscarriage, given that it she knew Felicia as someone from a conventionally observant Catholic background. (This assumes, of course, that the old lady even bothered to read anything Felicia wrote.)

[–] Unknownian 9 years ago

"Why does Felicia write to Johnny's mom that her grandchild has been born"?

Just realized you asked this question 12 years ago...lol. Guess you may have gotten the answer by now......but just in case:

She writes, (actually narrates): "Your Grandchild wasn't born Mrs......."

That Irish accent was so heavy, you could hardy tell "was" from "wasn't".

[–] thepooles-1 11 years ago

Everyone who cared about this film has wonderful contributions-yours included of course. With Hoskins' recent passing hopefully the film will be revisited. It was a powerful film and emotionally overwhelming to ponder. It was a journey of a young girl unknowingly jilted by a callow youth and Egoyan laid out a compelling journey of empathy for all of us discerning viewers. Add the haunting Celtic vocals and it is almost unbearable to experience. Is there an
American Egoyan? Sayles comes close with LONE STAR and a few others.

[–] dspiroactionhero 21 years ago

Hildith's suicide was inevitable like most tragedies. Slowly but surely Hildith's psychological imbalance becomes more and more radical. It is important to understand that the writer took a great deal of time to illustrate Hildith as a torn man, rather than a one dimensional murderer. He kills himself on the brink of killing his "angel", the girl he felt he connected with more so than the others. He, as well as the audience knows, that his loneliness cannot be resolved. The Jamaican woman lectures him about salvation after death when he finds his mother's old purse. He is obviously very vulnerable at this point. Hildith listens to the Jamaican woman's banter and accepts what she has to say. His solution is that his pain will end when he dies. Although he lets Felicia go he doesn't prefer her departure. That is why he waits for her decision at the door. When his "angel" has left by choice, his one final attatchment to this world, the woman who had the most in common with him more than any other to follow as far as he was concerned, he figured his happiness could only be found in death. This is a bit lengthy and a bit late as I'd imagine but I figured I would respond anyway.

[–] 21 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jonchopwood 20 years ago

In the book, which is a small masterpiece, Hilditch becomes mentally destroyed at the end when Felicia's escape causes him such pain that he can no longer repress the memories of his mother's seduction of himself as a child. He was a victim of incest. The memories are so horrible, he kills himself.

[–] Incibel 20 years ago

Gee... I didn't even realize that the relationship between Hilditch and his mother was incestuous!
Was it meant to come out that way in the film? If it was, I just overlooked it like a lot of people I guess...

[–] ChazzJazz 17 years ago

Hilditch was a fat boy with a cook for a mother, she smothered him. there was NO sign of abuse !! other than the fact he was fat

[–] Arctic_Wizard 17 years ago

The incest is in the book - not the film.

'She's the one I've waited for' - Judi Dench.

[–] slarsson 19 years ago

As for the blood after an abortion...as someone who works at a hospital, this bleeding does not necessarily indicate that Felicia can no longer have kids. Abortions are messy and things are left behind, we do a lot of procedures which esentially 'clean up' a few weeks later. However, the psychological trama she endured would no doubt make it difficult for her to trust another man at all. Her father disowned her, her boyfriend ditched her, and the only seemingly friendly person she came across in the male race wanted to kill her, at least for a time.

[–] IridescentTranquility 18 years ago

Does anyone wonder about this little thing at the end? Felicia leaves Hilditch's house wearing only her nightie . . . where do you think she goes? She has no money because he took it, she has no one to go to (unless she went to the missionary lady, which I doubt) - she can't go back to her father - and as slarsson says, after what Hilditch tried to do, would she trust anybody again?

I often wondered how she got from there to what I presume to be a job or some kind of voluntary work in the park at the end.

"If we go on like this, you're going to turn into an Alsatian again."

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ChazzJazz 17 years ago

Hilditch told the missionary ladies that he stole from Felicia to keep her close to him.

And since he had no relatives i think she would have been entitled to something from his estate. The noble thing would have been for Hilditch to leave her something in a will.

In any case, the missionary ladies would have calmed down by now to allow Felicia back dont you think? Minor point you put up; suffice to say that Felicia did get her life back in order and was very forgiving of Hilditch at the end.

[–] helloeeze 16 years ago

I was wondering where Felicia was at the very end planting bulbs. That wasn't a sanatorium, was it, where she was recovering from her trama.

I thnk the missionary ladies would have called the police at the end.

THE SEX THING

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMo2qxiwajk&feature=related

[–] WarpedRecord 15 years ago

I thought Felicia was planting trees as part of a community project, sort of a personal therapy for all she went through and to remember her child and the girls who didn't make it. But it could well ahve been a sanitorium.

I also suspect the church ladies (isn't that special?) would have called the police. Regardless, when Felicia left in her bloodied nightclothes, she probably would have gotten help fast and, hopefully, completed her journey safely.

[–] raveoddgrl 15 years ago

I believe the area she is planting the flowers is Postman's Park. It is a memorial for people who have died in heroic circumstances. I figured it was her symbolically planting flowers for the girls who died before her as she feels connected to them now.

But I am only guessing. As I have never been to London, I am well aware that public parks could look alike. But the place is also seen in the film, Closer.

Es que no tenerte aquí ya me hace mal - Shakira

[–] nsnces 11 years ago

Did the missionaries see anything that warranted calling the police? They may have seen what we, the filmgoers, know to be a partially dug grave, but would they have recognized it as such? They didn't know Felicia was in the house, although if they were still in the neighborhhood when she made her exit, they may have seen her on the street.

Just as an aside, unless I'm overlooking something, neither Felicia nor anyone else was in a position to give the police any evidence that linked him to any previous victims, so at worst he faced prosecution for his treatment of Felicia, although that may have bad enough.

[–] tika313 9 years ago

She knew the first names of the other victims. It wouldn't have been unreasonable for the police to connect them to unsolved missing persons cases. I'm sure not all of the girls had loved ones who missed them but after awhile someone might have noticed there disappearance and reported it.

[–] nsnces 11 years ago

Why did the guy permit the missionaries to engage him in conversation? How difficult is it to give unwanted solicitors of any description the brushoff?