Cinema: Felicia's Journey

She (Elaine Cassidy) is an Irish girl come to Birmingham, England, to find the guy who left her pregnant. He (Bob Hoskins) is a caterer with an eye, and a knife, for the ladies. In this sort-of comedy about a serial killer and his next intended, the only thing pushing the plot is relentless coincidence--a movie this implausible shouldn't be this dull--and a very aggressive score that tells you what you would have felt if the film (from the director of The Sweet Hereafter) had been made with more passion and craft. Only Hoskins rises above the dankness. His malevolence is fastidious, wistful; he's a sadist with a schoolboy's heart.

--By Richard Corliss