For a very straightforward film, Philomena is an exceptionally hard film to write about. It covers a period of history that I found confronting and hard to forgive.
Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) has just lost his job as a government adviser and is desperately looking for something to pass the days. He comes across Philomena Lee (Judi Dench), an elderly Irish woman who has just revealed to her daughter that she gave birth to a son fifty years earlier and has been trying to track him down since. Philomena gave birth in an Irish convent, where she worked as an indentured servant, before be forced to give her son up for adoption. Martin decides to help her while writing a human interest story on her to get out of his rut.
For me, I found this story very confronting. I didn't know that young women were abandoned by their families for the shame of having a child out of wedlock. The Catholic Church's stance that what these young women had done is a sin, is a ridiculous concept and results in having people like Philomena Lee keep a secret like this for the majority of their lives.
So its no surprise that an actress like Judi Dench is able to pull off such an emotionally difficult character like Philomena. She is able to put a lot of emphasis on the extremely emotional scenes, as well as be fantastically funny when humour is needed. She was also able to pull off an Irish accent with extreme ease and is entirely convincing.
For someone who has built an entire career off comedy, Steve Coogan slipped into this role with relative ease. At first, I was expecting him to make joke after joke, but without his comedy partner Rob Brydon by his side, that would seem like a betrayal. But his performance as Martin Sixsmith was spot-on and I really felt the anger that he was feeling throughout the film.
Verdict: A extremely well-made film about a time in history that is heartbreaking. Excellent performances from both Dench and Coogan.
Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) has just lost his job as a government adviser and is desperately looking for something to pass the days. He comes across Philomena Lee (Judi Dench), an elderly Irish woman who has just revealed to her daughter that she gave birth to a son fifty years earlier and has been trying to track him down since. Philomena gave birth in an Irish convent, where she worked as an indentured servant, before be forced to give her son up for adoption. Martin decides to help her while writing a human interest story on her to get out of his rut.
For me, I found this story very confronting. I didn't know that young women were abandoned by their families for the shame of having a child out of wedlock. The Catholic Church's stance that what these young women had done is a sin, is a ridiculous concept and results in having people like Philomena Lee keep a secret like this for the majority of their lives.
So its no surprise that an actress like Judi Dench is able to pull off such an emotionally difficult character like Philomena. She is able to put a lot of emphasis on the extremely emotional scenes, as well as be fantastically funny when humour is needed. She was also able to pull off an Irish accent with extreme ease and is entirely convincing.
For someone who has built an entire career off comedy, Steve Coogan slipped into this role with relative ease. At first, I was expecting him to make joke after joke, but without his comedy partner Rob Brydon by his side, that would seem like a betrayal. But his performance as Martin Sixsmith was spot-on and I really felt the anger that he was feeling throughout the film.
Verdict: A extremely well-made film about a time in history that is heartbreaking. Excellent performances from both Dench and Coogan.
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