"Philomena" is based on a true story about an elderly Irish woman
searching for the toddler son she gave up for adoption as an unwed teen
living in a convent. Most of its pleasures come from the way it confounds expectations.
From its odd-couple partnering of the usually stately Judi Dench and acerbic jester Steve Coogan (also co-writer and producer) to its remarkable cliché-avoiding yet still-emotional conclusion, the movie defies pigeonholing. What appears to be a simple sob fest eventually reveals itself to be a multi-faceted affair: part buddy comedy built upon class distinctions, part road trip adventure, and even part intriguing mystery.
Some might be taken aback at first by Dench, still the grandest of all British dames at 78, as Philomena. The character is a middle-class commoner of modest tastes, complete with a matronly coif, a utilitarian wardrobe and an appetite for salad-bar croutons, romance fiction and those free chocolates left on hotel pillows.
We are more accustomed to Dench in such luminously regal performances as the widowed Queen Victoria in "Mrs. Brown
," a commanding Queen Elizabeth I in "Shakespeare in Love" and James Bond's no-nonsense boss M. Don't be fooled, however. This might be one of her most complex portraits: a seemingly average person with an unlikely reserve of strength.
Her Philomena would have
every right to act the victim, considering the traumatic circumstances
that caused her to be separated from her child, and the vow of silence
about the matter that was forced upon her. Yet the actress slowly but
surely reveals Philomena's fortitude in the face of awful truths, her
immense capacity for empathy, and her sharp insight into human
behavior—along with a healthy frankness about sexuality despite the best
efforts of the nuns who tried to brainwash her otherwise. More on this film and download in here
