The true life premise behind Steve Coogan and Stephen Frears' Philomena sounds like it was tailor made to be a cinematic tearjerker. The incomparable Judi Dench plays an elderly, extremely devout Irishwoman searching for the child who was taken away from her decades earlier. To be sure, the film tap dances on all the right emotional buttons that will have audiences diving for the Kleenex, but it'll also make you laugh, and when at its absolute best will also fill you with justifiable outrage.
Coogan, who co-wrote the script with Jeff Pope, gravitated to the role of journalist Martin Sixsmith after reading an article by him, then diving into his powerful novel, The Lost Child of Philomena Lee. The book chronicles Sixsmith's epic, revealing journey alongside Philomena, a woman he couldn't be any more different from. Whereas the novel is heavy stuff all around and hardly what one would call a crowd-pleaser (it's quite sad, really), the story is rejiggered into a mismatched buddy comedy that recalls Coogan's The Trip.
At least, the first half of the film is mostly about laughs. Recently sacked from his government spin doctor gig over a trumped up scandal, Sixsmith is wallowing in self-misery and finding little inspiration in new novel. He takes little interest when Philomena's daughter approaches him for what sounds like a human interest story, involving her mother who became pregnant as a teen and was sent to one of those awful Magdalene Laundries (check out The Magdalene Sisters to see how terrible they were) where her child was given away to prospective parents. Decades later, Philomena still feels horrible about what happened, and needs Sixsmith's help to find her son.
As a man who left his Catholic faith behind years earlier, Sixsmith is drawn to Philomena's story because of the guilt she carries over her one act of sexual indiscretion. Or as the nuns accused her, "carnal incontinence", and felt the need to deny her and thousands of other troubled young woman basic human decency as they toiled for years like slaves. For this kind-hearted woman to hold no malice towards the Catholic Church for what they did, drives the Oxford-educated Sixsmith to challenge her faith repeatedly, as if belittling her with his superior intellect will force her to have some grand epiphany. More often than not these confrontations are done with a playful touch, and the film finds a lot of humor in highlighting the odd couple's differences. Their investigation taking them to America, she's immediately enamored by buffet food, bad movies (Big Momma's House is the culprit) and trashy romance novels, which she fills Sixsmith's head with stories about, much to his chagrin.
And then things start to get tough as the clues to her son's whereabouts lead to some extremely dark places, and the lies told by the Church begin to pile up. Along the way, Philomena's dogged determination and ability to forgive drive Sixsmith's angry crusade, and the answers they find only seem to lead to bigger questions. While the mystery at the heart of the film is never less than intriguing, it takes a while for the investigative aspect to hit its stride. Frears, who has been in a bit of a directorial slump lately, struggles to blend the severe shifts in tone. Fortunately he gets a ton of help by Coogan and Dench, who make a wonderful team and are a joy to watch. Dench is terrific as the working class, grandmotherly Philomena, a woman whose capacity for kindness seems limitless. It's impossible not to love Dench, and by extension Philomena, which only makes it tougher for Coogan to make Sixsmith a guy worthy of just being liked. And yet he does it by showing the softer side of Sixsmith underneath the snide remarks and righteous indignation. There's a deeply caring soul who only wants to see Philomena lighten the burden of guilt she's been carrying for decades.
Frears and Coogan balance the weightier aspects with enough levity to keep the mood light, even when launching what is a scathing attack on the Catholic Church's misdeeds. What’s most impressive is that there's enough room allowed for differing viewpoints without condescension. As Sixsmith begins to warm to the old woman, he doesn't drop to his knees in prayer and start seeing things her way. Nor does she give in to Sixsmith's cynicism, even when it would be easier to do so.
While the film edges on sentimentality just a little, it never preaches and is always rooted in being an entertaining experience. Regardless of your religion or lack thereof, Philomena is a funny and hopeful tale of redemption that audiences (and possibly Oscar voters) will love.
Trav's Trip: For more on Philomena, check out my interview with Steve Coogan here!
