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| Dame Judi Dench and Steve Coogan. |
Mothers have an instinctive sense of watching out for their children, I mean, if a mother wolf sees a human carrying the her baby, the person better let the little one go, otherwise...you get the picture. But, a mother who realizes that because of authoritative laws, she would like to go look for and reunite with a long lost child after a long period of time. The discovery behind Philomena was not all that original and plausible, but thanks to one great performance, the movie was rather truly interesting and moving.
The movie starts with Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan), a journalist, had just lost his job and was debating whether he should write a book about Russian history. Meanwhile, Philomena Lee (Dame Judi Dench) tells her daughter that she gave birth to a son out of wedlock 50 years ago and because of that, she had to give him up for adoption. But in a sudden bit of fate and luck, Martin meets Philomena's daughter at a party and even though he does want to write a human interest story, he accepts the work to investigate the story. So, Philomena and Martin meet for the first time and start to investigate Philomena's son.
Martin and Philomena starts their search at a convent where the nuns are hospitable and polite towards them, but, unfortunately, they do not have the information regarding her son as the adoption records were burned. But, when Martins meets a man at a pub where he is drinking so much because of frustration, the man tells him that records were deliberately burned and they sold the adoptive children to parents who were from the United States. The investigation and discoveries are going to delve deeper with complexity and surprise.
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| Philomena and Martin at a convent. |
Unfortunately, I cannot summarize any more plot due to spoilers and it would be unfair and unwise to just post it on the review. However, this movie surprised me as to how much of this material really intrigued me and that the material caught my attention. This movie is based on a true story on The Lost Child of Philomena Lee by the real Martin Sixsmith. Most of this material was true and affective as this material was so eloquently clear what the narrative drive was going for.
Judi Dench really gives an excellent and authentic performance as the title character who does not bring any false notes or predictability in her scenes, but she acts this character with dignity. Steve Coogan, who I recognized from other comedies such as Tropic Thunder and The Other Guys, gives a nuanced performance who looks like he is in a sad state and could not figure out what to do in his life after finishing with the investigation. The character could have easily been a caricature. Their chemistry is delightful.
It seems that I am really praising the movie at first, but, I am really praising the performances. I thought that the movie seemed really straight forward that it was simple enough to watch and bear with for the duration of the time period of this movie. I mean there are tear-jerking scenes that are honest and sad, but there's some schmaltz that was just a little distracting. However, Stephen Frears, the director, does a good job balancing the comedy, drama, and bitterness between the characters and their situations. This movie was moving and attentive as we relate to Philomena's behavior and her own self. And, Dench made us totally convinced. I was surprised that I enjoyed this movie.
***
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