The problem with Felicia's Journey is not so much the nature of evil as the failure of sympathy. Hoskins has never equaled the pathos or humor of his performance in Mona Lisa, and those qualities are sadly lacking here; Hilditch is just a creep, and delving into his past doesn't make him any more appealing. And Cassidy's Felicia is an infuriatingly passive victim. Egoyan does manage some of his wry reflexivity in scenes where Hilditch reverently watches tapes of his mother's old BBC cooking show -- it's Psycho by way of The French Chef. And some of The Sweet Hereafter's quasi-mysticism surges toward the end as the journey takes an unexpected turn. Otherwise, the terrain is familiar: a bus ride with no unscheduled stops.