Philomena

 

Directed by Stephen Frears

Written by Martin Sixsmith and Steve Coogan

With Judi Dench and Steve Coogan

 

Philomena affords the pleasures of a good old fashioned film with an absorbing story that has no steamy sex, noisy car chases, or nerve wracking hijackings.  The film is based on the true story of Philomena Lee(Judi Dench), an 70 ish Irish woman who was forced to give up her illegitimate son in 1952 while she was in a convent.  For fifty years she has been trying to find him.  Finally, she enlists the help of Martin Sixsmith(Steve Coogan), an out of work journalist for the BBC.   He volunteers to help Philomena locate her son if he can write about it.  It would be an appealing human interest story which would surely revive his career. He wasn’t wrong. The book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee was widely popular.

 

As a teenager, Philomena worked tirelessly in the convent where she had the baby.  She was allowed to see him but one hour a day.  At age three, he was sold to an American family, and that’s the last she saw of him.

The story becomes a touching and hilarious road trip film which takes Philomena and Sixsmith from Ireland to the United States in search of the son.

 Philomena is a simple, dumpy, unsophisticated woman who reads Romance novels.  She chats up the servers in restaurants, exclaims on the robes and slippers provided by hotels, as well as the free chocolates on the pillows.  She is delighted by everything and everybody.  Martin Sixsmith, on the other hand, is a sarcastic and condescending intellectual.  However, they gradually develop a respect and a genuine fondness for each other.

 

Sixsmith is horrified when he discovers that the Catholic nuns sold her three year old son.  He questions her religious beliefs, but she remains true to her church, forgiving that she was mistreated by the nuns and showing a  tenacity of  faith in the face of cruelty.  He is outraged and wants to reveal the Church’s secrets about the children ‘sold.’  She will have none of that.

 

Philomena could easily been a mushy tear jerker.  Instead, those tear jerking moments are heart rending but very real. Director Stephen Frears includes flashbacks to Philomena’s earlier life and how she imagines her son.  They serve to round out who she is.

The chemistry between Dench and Coogan couldn’t be better, and that is why Philomena should be on everyone’s ‘Must See” list.  Dench, who has played everything from royalty to James Bond’s tightly coiled boss, is an unprepossessing and soft spoken woman.  Steve Coogan is her sophisticated counterpart.  He has just the right amount of acerbity and tenderness.  Coogan  co wrote the script with the real Martin Sixsmith.

There are some revelations in the film which I am not sharing here.

Just know that Philomena tells a tragic story of human love and loss with intense humanity.  It is also has just the right amount of ‘odd couple’ comedy that will  have you smiling throughout.