Reviews

Written: May 9^th, 2014

  I recently watched the movie, Philomena, with my wife (yes, I know I'm behind the times) and I have to say I was NOT looking forward to it.

  I'm not a big fan of movies based on real-life events as they have a tendency to be sad, disheartening, and not at all an escape from reality. In fact, just the opposite. Movies like this will most certainly throw real-life in front of you, beat it with an ugly stick, and then, when it is up for an Academy Award, force you to be glad you spent your money on something that pissed you off or made you cry. Rarely have I seen one that made me cheer or be thankful I'm alive and thriving in this world.

  But I digress. Back to the movie.

  Philomena is about an elderly Irish woman (played by Dame Judi Dench) who has been keeping a secret from her family for nearly fifty years. When she was young she met a man at a fair. One thing lead to another and she became pregnant. The father wanted nothing to do with her and left her at a nunnery telling the rest of the family that she had died.

  At the orphanage Philomena eventually gave birth to a baby boy that she named Anthony. However being a young girl with no income and no familial support she had to work seven days a week in the worst tasks in the orphanage, only being able to see her son one hour out of each day.

  A couple of years go by and she is shocked to find out at the last minute that the nuns have adopted out her son to a family without informing her. She watches from a distance as her son leaves in someone else's care without being able to say good-bye.

  Years go by and Philomena, on Anthony's 50th birthday, finally decides to tell her daughter about him. Her daughter meets a disgraced journalist, Martin Sixsmith (played by Steve Coogan), who agrees to write this human interest story.

  Their first attempt at tracking Anthony down is to return to the abbey to ask some questions and to search the records. The nuns tell Philomena that all the records were burned in a great fire. All but the one piece of paper that Philomena signed all those years ago saying she would never look for Anthony.

  Later Martin discovers that the Great Fire was actually a bonfire the nuns started in the field where they burned all the records.

  After finding out that Anthony had been adopted by an American couple they journey to Washington, D.C. There Martin discovers that Anthony, now known as Michael Hess, had been in politics and had been an advisor to several presidents, including Ronald Reagan and George Bush. Sr. Unfortunately, they also find out that Anthony/Michael had died several years earlier.

  I must confess that at this time I really wanted to cry. Not just because of this sad news, but because once again my hope for a uplifting note in a Real-Life Based movie has been dashed once again.

  Again, though, I digress.

  After speaking with those who knew Anthony/Michael they find out that he was a closet homosexual and his partner, Peter, was still alive. After a few attempts at speaking with Peter failed, Philomena finally gets the job done by confronting Peter herself.

  The movie gets a bit better when Peter shows Philomena and Martin some home-videos of Anthony/Michaels life. Both are absolutely shocked (as my wife and I were) to see in the video that Anthony/Michael, while dying of AIDS, had journeyed to Ireland in search of his real mother! In the video it also shows that the one nun, Sister Hildegard, who had been refusing to help Philomena all this time had met Anthony/Michael! Reeling from this knowledge, Philomena is told by Peter that it was Anthony/Michaels last wishes to be buried in Ireland...at the abbey.

  Flying back Martin and Philomena confront the abbess, Sister Hildegard, about keeping all of this a secret, Philomena makes peace with the Sister's indignation (though Martin does not), and then, together they go visit Anthony/Michael's grave site.

  Yes, I gave a lot of the movie away. Consider it a warning that this movie does not, in my opinion, have a happy ending. On one side, the movie and the book that it is based on has made it possible for hundreds of adopted children to find their lost parents, but on the other side, you see a side of society that existed back then that shows what kind of intolerance, cruelty, and suffering those less fortunate were faced with.

  This is the reason I don't like these kinds of movies...and yet, not watching them doesn't mean it didn't happen. The tale needed to be told. More than that, it needed to be seen.

  Steve Coogan and Dame Judi Dench were amazing, as usual, in this movie. The story was powerful, the acting was superb, and the emotional roller-coaster you are sent on will stay with you for a good long time.

  And that's what a good movie should be like...memorable.