Tuesday Night is Film Night hits July with our 209th film. After missing out last week, although we did manage a cinema trip, which hasn't been blogged (waiting for it to come out on Blu-ray), we'll continue tonight with a film that we wanted to see at the cinema when it was released, but missed out. Tonight's offering is;
Philomena
We were hoping that Philomena would be a charming and lovely biographical drama and we were not disappointed. It is delightful and heartwarming, innocent in nature, but with some sinister plot overtones as well. What's more it is based on a true story, as documented in Martin Sixsmith's book of 2009; "The Lost Child of Philomena Lee".
Philomena charts the story of Philomena Lee from her humble Irish childhood, through a teenage pregnancy, which led her to being ensconced into the care of nuns at the abbey in Roscrea. Although this settlement was far from cosy and she was forced to work in the laundry, to pay her way and for the care of her child. After 4 years of toil, Philomena learns that Anthony; her son, was taken away for adoption. Thus we have the basis for the story, Philomena keeps her son a secret until the day that would have been his 50th birthday. She retells the story to her daughter, who in turn bumps into Martin Sixsmith at a party, where she is acting as a waitress. She suggests that Sixsmith, who had recently fallen heavily from grace within the Labour party, may like to take up the journalistic challenge of this nice human interest story. He graciously declines, but the thought clearly sits in the back of his mind, as he ends up taking a U-turn and meeting Philomena to gain some depth to the story.
Let us take a break there from the story itself and concentrate more on the cast. Philomena is played flawlessly by Judi Dench, she delivers a gentle Irish brogue, allied with a sweet innocence of character, which is just perfect. One time BBC journalist and Labour party adviser Martin Sixsmith is portrayed by Steve Coogan, who also wrote the screenplay and produced the film. Clearly Coogan immersed himself into this story as he portrays Sixsmith with a passion and total honesty.
The film then takes off as Martin and Philomena start trying to piece together the movement of Anthony after the nuns at Roscrea arrange for his adoption. This turns into a transatlantic adventure after the discovery that American families came over to Ireland to adopt the children looked after by the nuns. Obviously we don't want to spoil the story here, but it does not follow the feelgood formula, as Martin finds Anthony fairly quickly, about a third of the way through the film. However, it is not that simple as there are many, many plot twists and turns to the story that you are not necessarily expecting. Which is such a delight to not to follow a predictable path, but to be led on this amazing and very personal journey.
Not only is the story fantastic and true, but it is also the way that the film highlights the juxtaposition between Philomena's and Martin's outlooks. Philomena just wanted to know that Anthony was safe and happy. Whilst Martin with his dogged journalistic instincts wants answers as to why the nuns at Roscrea gave away a mother's son without letting her know, even almost 50 years on, why, where or how things turned out. Philomena is happy to forgive, Martin wants some kind of atonement.
We were really looking forward to Philomena and it was a pleasure to watch, there is a depth of story that you don't get with other films. There are subtleties with the delivery, the dialogue is natural and free flowing and funny. The comedic lines are more intuitively delivered, not artificial at all, bringing even more realism to what is already a true story, based on people that are still alive. It is this realism and honesty that makes the film. Although in parts it is clearly lachrymose and wistful, as this story would be expected to be, the way that Dench and Coogan play off one another is a delight to watch.
We often elude to the formulaic approach to movies, that provide a certain security in the knowledge that you know you're going on a journey, but it will end up all alright in the end, with Philomena that formula is torn up and we instead rely on a well delivered narrative, from a beautifully written script, based on a book that is filled with humanity without irony, based on an amazing real life story that is both endearing and touching.
We must buy the book now.
As for the TNiFN scores, yet another bone of contention, although the blogger loved it, the blogger's wife was slightly more restrained in her appraisal when it comes to dishing out the scores. Anyhow, enough chicanery!
TNiFN Rating 87%
IMBD Link
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