Philomena tells the story of Philomena Lee, an Irish women who had a child out of wedlock in the 1950's. She was sent to a convent by her family and The child was taken away from her by the Nuns.
The films follows Philomena (Judi Dench) and former BBC Journalist Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) 50 years later, as they go in search of whatever happened to Anthony.
Although this is "based on a true story" there is clearly a lot of dramatic licence used here to tell the story, the Martin Sixsmith character is portrayed as quite a hardnosed unlikable journalist, obviously I have not met the real Martin Sixsmith but I somehow doubt the real man is anything like the Coogan character.
The performance by Judi Dench as Philomena is great, although her Irish accent does come and go a bit, but this is a very different role for her and she plays it brilliantly.
The film is careful in it's discussion of religion and Catholics particularly when it comes to the Nuns, clearly this could be used as a tool to bash Christianity and this is avoided by ensuring that it is individual christians and not Christianity as a whole that are in the firing line.
This is clearly a story that needs to be told, if only to highlight the plight of those still searching for their Parents & Children.
A human interest story, though clearly adapted to make the film more interesting, a story that needs telling. Although with modern values regarding sex and Children outside of marriage this is unlikely to happen again, this is something everyone should see to ensure we never go back to the past 8/10
The films follows Philomena (Judi Dench) and former BBC Journalist Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) 50 years later, as they go in search of whatever happened to Anthony.
Although this is "based on a true story" there is clearly a lot of dramatic licence used here to tell the story, the Martin Sixsmith character is portrayed as quite a hardnosed unlikable journalist, obviously I have not met the real Martin Sixsmith but I somehow doubt the real man is anything like the Coogan character.
The performance by Judi Dench as Philomena is great, although her Irish accent does come and go a bit, but this is a very different role for her and she plays it brilliantly.
The film is careful in it's discussion of religion and Catholics particularly when it comes to the Nuns, clearly this could be used as a tool to bash Christianity and this is avoided by ensuring that it is individual christians and not Christianity as a whole that are in the firing line.
This is clearly a story that needs to be told, if only to highlight the plight of those still searching for their Parents & Children.
A human interest story, though clearly adapted to make the film more interesting, a story that needs telling. Although with modern values regarding sex and Children outside of marriage this is unlikely to happen again, this is something everyone should see to ensure we never go back to the past 8/10
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