Review of Philomena (2013) by Dawdlingpoet — 21 Nov 2021

Its hard not to feel sorry for Philomena, her ordeal being well portrayed - the scenes set in the nuns home are quite harsh and chilling. She comes across as someone with a real passion and determination, quite a steely person, although she clearly hides a lot of emotions which do come to the fore at times. Knowing this is based on a true story certainly gives it more impact, thats for sure. It could also be said that in some regards she's quite simplistic and even somewhat like a kid when in the US, gleefully pointing out to a rather uninterested Martin about the bewildering choice of breakfasts available at their hotel for one and apparently being so impressed with the service provided by hotel and restaurant staff that she labels them one in a million, to which straight talking Martin points out that statistically thats very unlikely. Their two quite different characters, both no nonsense in their own ways but both with their own questions and angles on the whole story, which makes for interesting viewing. There's also an element of comedy present, which comes as a form of light relief given how heavy the subject matter is, all things considered. Comedy is delivered through some witty exchanges of dialogue. The plot runs at a good pace throughout, it certainly doesn't lag and as the story starts to be told,the turn of events are quite surprising and makes you more and more intrigued about where it'll all end. I found myself wondering which person I agreed with, or related to more somehow, Philomena or Martin, in different ways. They certainly have their spats and both have very clear stances on the morality behind what happened, where blame lies and so on. The movie features flashbacks to when Philomena had her chance encounter (at a funfair of all places) that led to conception in the 1950s, as well as obviously the scenes of her in the work house, realising her son was being taken away but also, moreso perhaps, are the old film reels shown of Antony growing up - its a bit tantalising as it made me question things, presumably what went through Philomena's mind at the time, when we couldn't really get answers to them, although to be fair I was keen on the ending, which I thought was quite touching and poignant. The musical score was also quite spooky and poignant. There are some confrontational scenes between Philomena and Martin and their different takes on what happened but also between Martin and the authorities and the nuns at the old nuns retreat. This is definitely a movie to have tissues at the ready for but as well as it being a bit of a weepy, it did make me think about what happened and I'd say that the theme of forgiveness is a very strong one present. I liked that at the end, a series of statements is shown across the screen which explains what happened afterwards, whats become of both Philomena and Martin.

More generally its about religion and the influence that it had on people, how controlling those seen in authority were and so on. I felt that this movie was well made in terms of the two main characters being both rather quirky, the dialogue is good and the plot moved at a decent pace, although it doesn't have a big screen feel to it, it could well be (or have been) an afternoon TV movie or similar, it definitely character driven more than relying on fancy camerawork or special effects, there's no need for any of that. I found Judi Dench's acting in this movie to be pretty top notch really - her emotions are clear to see, her frustration, determination, joy and so on are very well portrayed and indeed I'd say that her performance outshines Coogans, although he also gives a pretty good performance as well and the two of them do seem to gel quite well on screen. I'd also like to add that Sophie Kennedy Clark (who portrays Philomena as a teenager, when she gave birth and worked at the convent/work house) also gives a very good, emotive. performance.

Some plot elements seemed a little convenient, such as how Martin managed to get ahold of clippings that identified Antony - I'd have liked to have seen a bit more of an explanation in terms of how certain things were tracked down, rather than just the end outcomes as they were shown but obviously this is based on a true story, so convenient or not it does come from real life. I might have liked to have known a bit more about Martins background too, although enough was shown to make it clear that both main characters have self perhaps self doubts and have had tough times. I suppose it was better to tell such a hard hitting, important story of our times in a somewhat concise and 'to the point' way, rather than potentially losing viewers in a maybe unnecessary long winded version of the story, if it may have become too dark and depressing. Maybe it packs more of a punch, so to speak, in conveying such a story in all of an hour and forty minutes, which is a pretty short running time.