“purity itself can’t surely wash the pain away.”

this was a really interesting watch. bob hoskins is really unnerving and menacing in his role in this one, and elaine cassidy is pretty excellent as well in her role here as felicia. it’s so easy to identify with felicia at first, as she’s super relatable and empathetic, but the character is written so naively that at other times you feel utterly frustrated with her character. even at the end, her hopeful message to johnny screams a sense of naïveté that you would have hoped she had lost by now. it’s one thing to believe in the goodness of others and to believe a lover wants the best for us, but when they repeatedly show us that they are untrustworthy, we have to take that at face value. i was a big fan of the way that hilditch’s background is told to us, but it leaves too many questions about his upbringing to satisfy me. i understand that the movie wants to leave his relationship with his mother up to us, but it’s too ambiguous and doesn’t even give us a small crumb to work with. the christian missionaries were also annoying and unrealistically written, making demands and taking offense for small slights, and i hated them. the ending itself leaves a lot to be desired, and i don’t understand why hillditch chooses to spare felicia. it could be because of her unwavering innocence for sure, but there has to be more to it. overall a fine film, it just falls flat at the end.

“purity itself can’t surely wash the pain away.”

this was a really interesting watch. bob hoskins is really unnerving and menacing in his role in this one, and elaine cassidy is pretty excellent as well in her role here as felicia. it’s so easy to identify with felicia at first, as she’s super relatable and empathetic, but the character is written so naively that at other times you feel utterly frustrated with her character. even at the end, her hopeful message to johnny screams a sense of naïveté that you would have hoped she had lost by now. it’s one thing to believe in the goodness of others and to believe a lover wants the best for us, but when they repeatedly show us that they are untrustworthy, we have to take that at face value. i was a big fan of the way that hilditch’s background is told to us, but it leaves too many questions about his upbringing to satisfy me. i understand that the movie wants to leave his relationship with his mother up to us, but it’s too ambiguous and doesn’t even give us a small crumb to work with. the christian missionaries were also annoying and unrealistically written, making demands and taking offense for small slights, and i hated them. the ending itself leaves a lot to be desired, and i don’t understand why hillditch chooses to spare felicia. it could be because of her unwavering innocence for sure, but there has to be more to it. overall a fine film, it just falls flat at the end.