MOVIE: Philomena

Philomena: a drama starring Judi Dench based upon actual events.  The past year saw a number of strong roles for actresses.  Dench’s performance was up to the task and she will probably receive another well-deserved Oscar nomination.  The movie is based upon the nonfiction book “The Lost Child of Philomena Lee”.   It is the story of a woman who, 50 years after her 3 year old child has been adopted, tells her adult daughter that she has a brother.  Philomena then leaves to search for her son.  A teenage Philomena, played by Sophie Kennedy Clark, is left at an Irish convent by her father after she becomes pregnant.  We are told how it came about that Philomema was relegated to the convent.  We are also told that her mother had previously died.  There are flashbacks to 1952, including a scene where her son is taken away by the adopting parents.  Philomena’s daughter connects with a reporter, Martin Sixsmith, played by Steve Coogan.  The movie opens with the reporter and we first meet Philomena through his eyes.  Sixsmith is upper class English, and there are amusing scenes where he and Philomena play off each other’s very different backgrounds and attitudes towards life.  These differences include Philomena remaining a practicing Catholic and Coogan no longer believing in God.  Other contrasts including Philomena being a people person while Martin is arrogant and dismissive.  As this 98 minute film unfolds, we learn that the women who were left at the convent paid off the costs incurred for their care and that of their young children through virtual slave labor in a laundry.  Later in the film Philomena learns that the convent received compensation from the Americans who adopted these Irish children.  As the search in America continues, we learn that Philomena is much more complex than her original demeanor had indicated.  The script, co-written by Coogan and Jeff Pope, provides Dench with an opportunity to present a wide range of emotions and she takes full advantage of it.  The film, directed by Stephen Frears, does not present a kind view of the nuns.  Their negative attitude towards sexuality is at the heart of the storyline.  Philomena does not lose her faith despite the information she learns, both as to her own son and the women who were under the nuns’ care.  This movie walks a fine line between noting the bad deeds of the nuns in the context of the Catholic church’s institutional condemnation of premarital sex while showing why people maintain their faith.  An excellent film with excellent actors.