Review of Philomena (2013) by Mike C — 14 Jul 2014

Damn, in a tough year to pick some of the Oscars, this movie is right there in a couple. I've seen Coogan be silly but he's very good and serious in this and wrote the screenplay from a non-fiction book. Dench is typically good and was about as good as any female lead in 2014. And the movie had some tough competition for Best Picture but was again a solid competitor.

It's a horrible story and one that needed exposed: young women, in this case under the imprisonment of nuns, forced to give away their children. In this story, Dench's character begins to search for her long-lost son after 50 years with the help of Coogan's journalist character.

I write stories so a few things stick out: Coogan rarely took notes and Dench dropped some true gems of quotes and he didn't get them verbatim!? Ah shit I'd kill for those lines in my story. But on top of that, granted it's a movie, but the story kept building wonderfully. It's like, shit, if I had this story fall into my lap, I could turn heads and probably get wealthy from it. I know these types of stories happen, but what is true and what is Hollywood can remain a mystery. It's a great screenplay.

So finally, that's my rage. Not to spoil too much, but the ending gets into some anger, and some imdb posters call out one of the characters for a line delivered. So getting into some spoilers below...

Great if Dench's character can so easily forgive. But who then will speak for the 14-year-old girl who likely lived a pretty shitty life and died without anyone even knowing? Who will be outraged about all the lies told to both mother and son? It's convenient story telling where you have one character being all angry and one being all forgiving, and one or both can deliver great lines justifying his/her position. But damn it. There should be outrage in this situation.

In all, great movie. Way better than I expected despite the four Oscar nominations. It's like the book "The Girls Who Went Away." It didn't just happen in a Catholic convent in Ireland.