CineMata's Movie Madness
  • Homepage
  • Guest Reviews & Interviews
    • Rhapsody in August
  • Hollywood Award Shows
    • Barbenheimer, the Goldilocks Dilemma and Oscar 2024
    • Cine's Fantasy Golden Globes 2021
    • Oscar 2020
    • For Your Consideration 2018
    • For Your Consideration 2017
    • 50 Shades of Oscar 2016
    • 2016 Golden Globes
    • 2015 Emmys Redux
    • 2014 Oscars: Plantation Politics
    • 2014 Emmys : A Dash of Racism
    • 2013 Emmys : Hold the Mayo
  • Cine's Closeup
    • Nessie 2023
    • Jeanne duBarry
    • Dead Boy Detectives
    • Missing
    • You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah!
    • Kill Bok-soon
    • The Pale Blue Eye
    • The Munsters 2022
    • Hello, My Name is Doris
    • In Praise of Family
    • Venom 2
    • Ophelia
    • Mank
    • Macbeth 2015
  • Pioneering Feministas
    • Tar: Are You Being Gaslighted?
    • Janet Green: Tapping into the Dark Side
    • Women Make Film
    • Alice Guy-Blache
    • Auteur Directors
  • Star Spot
    • Juanita Moore
    • Raisin in the Sun 3
    • Cine's Walk of Fame Tour
  • The Woman's Voice
    • Blonde 2022
    • Women Warriors
    • The Divine Order
    • Twilight: A Primal Call for Patriarchal Dominance
    • The Fierce Women of Summer
    • Martha Fiennes' ONEGIN
    • The Dressmaker
    • Sofia Coppola and The Silent Woman
    • Thelma and Louise
    • Bridesmaids 2011
    • Mildred Pierce HBO
    • Dragonwyck
    • Cousin Bette
    • Stage Beauty
  • About Cine
  • Top Ten Faves
    • Cine's Top Film & TV Picks for 2023
    • 'Tis the Season for Murder
    • 12 Days of Cinematic Christmas 2020
    • The Best Film Experiences of 2017
    • Female Villains to Die For
    • 10 Remakes to Remember
    • We Heart the Bad Boys
    • 12 Days of Cinematic Christmas 2014
    • Most Memorable Moms
    • Cult Film Faves
  • Contact Cine
  • Hollywood Notables
    • Fiona Shaw
    • Viola Davis
    • Elizabeth Banks
    • Shia LaBeouf
  • Rave Reviews
    • Best of Netflix 2017
    • Mayhem
    • Dave Made a Maze
    • Lavender
    • Hail Caesar!
    • Spy
    • Gravity
    • Inception 2010
    • Black Swan 2010
    • Flight
    • Moonrise Kingdom
    • Lincoln
    • Looper
    • Lawless
  • Telegenic Static
    • Annika * Season 2
    • Wednesday
    • Cine's 2018/19 Seasonal Faves
    • The Highwaymen
    • Cine's New Year Resolution: Watch More Netflix!
    • TCM : A Class Act
    • Best of TV * 2017
    • Female Detectives on TV
    • Neo-Renaissance TV: Feud & Big Little Lies
    • True Detective Navigates Noirland
    • Texas Rising
    • 2014/2015 TV Season Highlights
    • 2013-2014 TV Favorites
  • British Film & TV
    • Stage Fright
    • The Banshees of Inisherin
    • Doc Martin
    • Song of the Swan
    • Death in Paradise
    • Miss Scarlet and the Duke
    • The Stranger
    • Sanditon
    • Collateral
    • Handsome Devil
    • Love & Friendship
    • Victorian Slum House
    • 45 Years
    • Anonymous
    • Appropriate Adult
    • Sherlock Holmes: Many Faces
    • Philomena
    • British Feminista TV
    • Brassed Off
  • The Golden Age
    • Gone with the Wind
    • Cleopatra 1934
    • Elizabeth Taylor: The Passing of an Icon
  • Who You Callin' Crazy?!
    • Cine's Walk of Fame Tour
    • Count Bela: Nosferatu & Vampyr
    • Post Awards with Ida Lupino
    • The Duke: Cowboys/Aliens vs WWZ
    • Liberace Dishes
    • Elizabeth Taylor Visits Cine
  • Noir Greats
    • Nightmare Alley
    • The Big Heat
    • Femme Fatales: Crime is My Career
    • Femme Fatales: Honey, I'm Home!
    • Crime of Passion
    • The Loves of Carmen
    • The Many Faces of Noir
    • In Order of Disappearance
    • Boss - 2011/12 series
    • Pepe le Moko 1937
    • Mystery Street 1950
    • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
    • The Barefoot Contessa: A Noir Bridge to Nowhere
    • They Won't Believe Me
    • Dan Duryea Nails Noir
    • What Is Film Noir?
    • They Drive By Night
  • Commentaries
    • Award Season 2019 Redux
    • #OscarsSoTarnished
    • Orson Welles Independent Film Tribute
    • Oscar 2016: The Politics of Segregation
    • Hollywood Director's Club: For Men Only
    • Poliwood and the Hollywood Blacklist
    • Cine Mata's 2015 Picks and Pans
    • The Unbearable Whiteness of Emmy Hosting
    • Oscar's Dodge
  • Drive-By Reviews
    • Dark Phoenix
    • Nola Circus
    • Comfort
    • ATOMICA
    • Innuendo
    • My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
    • Film Franchise Meltdown
    • The Woman in Black
    • Girls with Guns 3.0
    • Coriolanus
    • Lady Scarface 1941
  • International Films & TV
    • My Pandemic Marathon Diaries
    • The Twelve
    • Mr. Sunshine
    • The World of International Noir
    • Romance of Our Parents
    • The Grand Hotel Saga
    • Don't Be Bad
    • The Handmaiden
    • Caramel / Sukkar banat
    • Morning for the Osone Family 1946
    • Fritz Lang's M
    • La Bete Humaine
  • Political Rx
    • The Sympathizer
    • Rebellion
    • Women in the White House
    • The Ides of March
    • By The People: The Election of Barack Obama
  • Culture Centric Cinema
    • Horror Noire
    • Self Made
    • Little
    • Hidden Figures
    • Fences
    • #Whiterose: Identity, Secrecy & BD Wong
    • Imitation of Life 1934
    • Frazzled Hair Wars
    • Soul Men
  • Indie Films
    • Scotland, PA
    • Adrift in Soho
    • H4
    • Paint It Red
    • HAMLET in the Golden Vale
    • Trouble is My Business
    • The Browsing Effect
    • Indie Films 2018 >
      • Clara's Ghost
      • Cold War
      • To Dream
      • The New Romantic
      • Here and Now
      • Unlovable
      • The Landing
      • I CAN I WILL I DID
      • Choosing Signs
      • Iron Brothers
      • Across the River
      • Josephine Doe
      • Sunset
      • SUNSET: Interview
      • The Forgiven
      • Kill Order
      • Midnighters
      • Half Magic
      • Looking Glass
      • Entanglement
      • Crazy Famous
      • Stratton
      • As You Like It
      • Hunter
  • eau de cinematic clunker
    • Avatar 2: The Way of Water
    • The Irishman
    • Almost Friends
    • The Osiris Child
    • Bushwick
    • Pilgrimage
    • Fun Mom Dinner
    • Once Upon A Time in Venice
    • Aaron's Blood
    • Black Rose
    • Lucy 2014
    • Transcendence 2014
  • Book Reviews
    • Conversations with Ray Bradbury
    • A Woman's View
    • Dark Dames
    • Auntie Mame's Favorite Son: Patrick Dennis
    • I'm A Lebowski, You're A Lebowski
  • Documentary Picks & Pans
    • Ladies First: A Story of Women in Hip-Hop
    • Black Ballerina
    • Leftover Women
    • Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind
    • Unrest
    • Be Natural
    • Farmsteaders
    • Bombshell : Hedy Lamarr
    • Jungle
    • Who the F**k is that Guy?
    • The Man in the Camo Jacket
    • Spirit Game: Pride of a Nation
    • Burlesque: Heart of the Glitter Tribe
    • Listen to Me Marlon
    • I Am Not Your Negro
    • The Girls in the Band
    • TCM's Trailblazing Women in Film
    • The Honor Diaries
    • Side By Side
    • American Masters : Salinger
    • The Story of Film
  • LGBTQ pov
    • The Watermelon Woman
    • Making Sweet Tea
    • Drag Queens & Trannies
    • Milk 2009
  • Silent Classics
    • Charles Epting: Silent Film Historian
    • Hollywood's Silent Film Grave Huntress
    • La Boheme 1926
    • The Blot 1921
    • Pandora's Box
    • Don Juan
  • Art House Flicks
    • Birth
    • I'm Not There
  • Kid's Korner
    • Pokemon Detective Pikachu
    • Hotel Transylvania 3 : Summer Vacation
    • The Incredibles 2
    • Sherlock Gnomes
    • Paddington 2
    • Lego Batman: A Super Hero in Crisis
    • SING: Cine's 2017 Oscar Pick
    • Summer Flicks 2016
    • Kung Fu Panda 3 / 2016
  • Cine's Friends
  • Archives

Philomena 2013

by Paulette Reynolds
March 11, 2015


Directed by Stephen Frears
Screenplay by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope 

Based on The Lost Child of Philomena Lee by Martin Sixsmith

Starring Judi Dench, Steve Coogan

Stephen Frears' Philomena is at first glance just simple film, so simple that it slipped by me when it first came out in the fall of 2013. Thanks to cable television, this cinematic jewel is now on my list of favorite films to watch and recommend. This true story is about an extraordinary woman, who is determined to locate her son, taken from her and sold to an American family by an Catholic Abbey in the early 1950s. 

Philomena (Judi Dench) and her daughter enlist the aid of Martin Sixsmith (Steven Coogan), a British journalist who is between jobs and beyond caring about the world around him. Martin spots a human-interest story after Philomena reveals that she worked at the the Sean Ross Convent for 'wayward' (read: unwed and pregnant) girls for four years as a 'punishment' for her situation. And what was more heartbreaking, the young women were forced to give up their children, many of whom were adopted by wealthy American families for a tidy sum. Such was the fate of Philomena Lee's young son, Anthony, who was  adopted without her permission. 

As they traverse Great Britain, Philomena shares her memories of loss, thankful along the way for any scrap of information that will bring her closer to discovering Anthony's fate. She imagines he's living a wonderful life and is hopeful that she might be reunited with him. Alternately amused and irritated by Philomena's old-fashioned beliefs, Martin's cynicism eventually gives way to a deep respect for her courage and compassion. 

Philomena discovers that her son, who was renamed Michael, died of AIDS in 1995. He, too, was lied to by the Sean Ross nuns on three separate visits to the Abbey, in his own search for his birth mother. After his death he requested to be buried at the Abbey in Roscrea, Ireland, in the hopes his birth mother might find him. Now found, she resolves to find out about his life - and about those who loved him - so as to better understand and connect with his memory. At the same time, Martin teeters between anger at the nun's coverup and fears he might be exploiting Philomena. 

Judi Dench's gives a textured performance of a woman who refuses to give up her search for the truth while continuing to see the good in others. The strength of Philomena is this remarkable woman herself, who shares her memories with everyone they meet - including the nuns who lie about their tarnished past, in an attempt to dissuade Philomena from pursuing the truth. She remembers without rancour, from a deep well of love that keeps her loving nature intact.  And her calm acceptance juxtaposes the bitterness of Sister Hildergarde, a spiteful nun, whose own memories are colored by what she  lost due to her own life choices.

Philomena's absolute faith in humanity is a perfect counterpoint to Martin's baggage of stifled anger, whose impatience with a flawed human race masks his insecurity about where he truly belongs in the world. Steve Coogan plays to perfection the quintessential millennial, who rails against the conventional goodness of Philomena’s worldview.

While it's true that the screenplay makes some changes in the final denouement scene at the Abbey with Sister Hildergarde, the Coogan/Pope collaboration stays true to the unsavory practices during that repressive era. However, the film errs when it suggests that American actress Jane Russell adopted one of the Sean Ross children, which later proved to be incorrect. What was the point of that scene?  It was already clear that wealthy Americans adopted the children.  Perhaps Coogan/Pope were drawing a line between Sean Ross and the current crop of celebrity overseas adoptions.



Regardless, Philomena proves that the complexities of life often come in simple wrappings. 


Alex von Tunzelmann. November 11, 2013. 
“Philomena: nun too sloppy when it comes to the facts”
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/nov/11/philomena-historical-accuracy-steve-coogan

March 10, 2015.


COPYRIGHT 2012/2015. Paulette Reynolds.  All CineMata Movie Madness blog articles, reviews, faux interviews, commentary, and the Cine Mata character are under the sole ownership of Paulette Reynolds.  All intellectual and creative rights reserved.  
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.