Philomena: A Review
Stephen Frears’ latest film takes inspiration from Martin Sixsmith’s novel The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, becoming a subtle meditation on the nature of forgiveness while not shying away from the despicable behaviour of the Irish Catholic Church (link contains information that may be considered spoilers).
Philomena is played by Judi Dench, who nails the West of Ireland accent. Still grieving for an absent son sold for adoption by the nuns in charge of a Magdalene laundry where she was indentured as a teenager, she finally confesses to her daughter Jane (Anna Maxwell Martin) the existence of this secret sibling Anthony. Steve Coogan’s Martin Sixsmith meanwhile is still reeling from the ignominious end of his career within the Blair administration. A chance encounter with Jane leads her to try to convince him to tell her mother’s story, which he cynically dismisses as cheap human interest misery-journalism fit for tabloids.
The barely repressed venom in Coogan’s delivery of this line is a neat indication of the script’s intent, which the actor also had a hand in writing. Eschewing the tropes of misery lit and impotent rage at the tragic events surrounding the laundries, Philomena instead not only depicts this injustice but tempers anger with clear-headedness. Martin eventually does agree to meet his subject having successfully pitched the article to an editor, wonderfully played by Game of Thrones’ Michelle Fairley ('who are the bad guys?'), and finds himself won over by the self-effacing plight of this elderly woman.
What follows is a road movie of sorts, with Philomena and Martin travelling across to the States and back again, hunting down the trail of Anthony fifty years cold. Frears balances flashbacks to the years working at the Roscrea convent, the hardship endured by the young mothers in the laundries and the loving warmth of their brief time spent with their children. Sophie Kennedy Clark, who has gone from playing a British royal in Black Mirror to a naive Irish woman, stands in as a younger Philomena. Her distress at the loss of Anthony is raw and powerful. Dench sells just how enduring this emotion lingers decades later.
A mixture of tragedy and gentle humour eases the audience through the story, with Dench and Coogan introducing a light screwball tone to some of their scenes. There is a recurring joke that Martin is attempting to write a historical work about Russia, whereas Philomena prefers to read dull romance novels and insists on describing the plots to him.
In contrast, their scenes confronting the 'bad guys' are subtly powerful. Martin is puffed up with righteous anger at the aged Sister Hildegarde who presided over the convent during the 1950s. Philomena, however, remains strong in her religious convictions. She merely wants to know the whereabouts of Anthony so that she can make peace with what happened. The comparison between her enduring religious conviction, being someone directly wronged by the Church, versus the stout atheism of the successful and comfortably middle-class Martin, is repeatedly alluded to.
Ironically Barbara Jefford who appears as the principal antagonist Hildegarde, ranting and raving about fornication, is also known for her portrayal of the sexually sated Molly Bloom in Joseph Strick’s Ulysses (1967).
While the film is pointed in its indictment of how these women and their children were treated, it is not by any means an attack on the Catholic faith itself. Instead it questions the conduct of institutions given full control over the lives of ordinary Irish people and brings them to account. Philomena is an understatedly powerful film.
Philomena is currently in cinemas.
-Emmet O'Cuana
Philomena is played by Judi Dench, who nails the West of Ireland accent. Still grieving for an absent son sold for adoption by the nuns in charge of a Magdalene laundry where she was indentured as a teenager, she finally confesses to her daughter Jane (Anna Maxwell Martin) the existence of this secret sibling Anthony. Steve Coogan’s Martin Sixsmith meanwhile is still reeling from the ignominious end of his career within the Blair administration. A chance encounter with Jane leads her to try to convince him to tell her mother’s story, which he cynically dismisses as cheap human interest misery-journalism fit for tabloids.
The barely repressed venom in Coogan’s delivery of this line is a neat indication of the script’s intent, which the actor also had a hand in writing. Eschewing the tropes of misery lit and impotent rage at the tragic events surrounding the laundries, Philomena instead not only depicts this injustice but tempers anger with clear-headedness. Martin eventually does agree to meet his subject having successfully pitched the article to an editor, wonderfully played by Game of Thrones’ Michelle Fairley ('who are the bad guys?'), and finds himself won over by the self-effacing plight of this elderly woman.
What follows is a road movie of sorts, with Philomena and Martin travelling across to the States and back again, hunting down the trail of Anthony fifty years cold. Frears balances flashbacks to the years working at the Roscrea convent, the hardship endured by the young mothers in the laundries and the loving warmth of their brief time spent with their children. Sophie Kennedy Clark, who has gone from playing a British royal in Black Mirror to a naive Irish woman, stands in as a younger Philomena. Her distress at the loss of Anthony is raw and powerful. Dench sells just how enduring this emotion lingers decades later.
A mixture of tragedy and gentle humour eases the audience through the story, with Dench and Coogan introducing a light screwball tone to some of their scenes. There is a recurring joke that Martin is attempting to write a historical work about Russia, whereas Philomena prefers to read dull romance novels and insists on describing the plots to him.
In contrast, their scenes confronting the 'bad guys' are subtly powerful. Martin is puffed up with righteous anger at the aged Sister Hildegarde who presided over the convent during the 1950s. Philomena, however, remains strong in her religious convictions. She merely wants to know the whereabouts of Anthony so that she can make peace with what happened. The comparison between her enduring religious conviction, being someone directly wronged by the Church, versus the stout atheism of the successful and comfortably middle-class Martin, is repeatedly alluded to.
Ironically Barbara Jefford who appears as the principal antagonist Hildegarde, ranting and raving about fornication, is also known for her portrayal of the sexually sated Molly Bloom in Joseph Strick’s Ulysses (1967).
While the film is pointed in its indictment of how these women and their children were treated, it is not by any means an attack on the Catholic faith itself. Instead it questions the conduct of institutions given full control over the lives of ordinary Irish people and brings them to account. Philomena is an understatedly powerful film.
Philomena is currently in cinemas.
-Emmet O'Cuana
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