This movie is a true story based on the book by Steve Sixsmith (” The Lost Child of Philomena Lee”) Philomena Lee (Judi Dench) is an old Irish woman who is a retired nurse. When she was a naive teenager she got pregnant out of wedlock. She then went to a convent where she gave birth to a son. She remained at the convent for years, performing menial tasks for room and board. Her son was then taken away from her when he was a toddler. Philomena would now like to find him. She wants to know whether he remembers her and ever thinks about her.
Martin Sixsmith ( Steve Coogan) was previously The Director of Communications for Tony Blair’s government but was suddenly fired for reasons that are not clear. He is bored and has nothing to do.
Sixsmsith is approached by Philomena’s daughter ( Jane-Anna Maxwell Martin) to write a human interest piece on her mother but Martin thinks this is beneath him. Eventually, he decides to write the story so he and Philomena start out on their journey, which takes them to unexpected places. The relationship between Philomena and Martin becomes an interesting one too.
The film gets off to a slow start and has a leisurely pace but it’s a story worth telling. The Director (Stephen Frears) gets nice performances from the two leads and the screenplay by Coogan and Jeff Pope is good. There is some humor in the film but it’s basically a drama.
It will work fine as a rental but it is good enough to see on the BS.
Rating-7.75
Dave
