A Mother’s Redemption in PHILOMENA

A bittersweet tale of a mother’s search for a loved one from her past forms the core of Philomena, a real life semibiography of atonement and forgiveness amid ignorance and the passage of time.  As directed by Stephen Frears (The Queen, My Beautiful Laundrette) from a screenplay by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope from Martin Sixsmith’s book, “The Lost Child of Philomena Lee”, it features impressive acting and an affecting story.

 

 

Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) is an unemployed news writer in Britain who is searching for direction in his life.  At the same time, an elderly woman, Philomena Lee (Judi Dench), prays in church and commemorates an anniversary of the pain and loss of her illegitimate son. She recalls the distant memories of working at an abbey in Ireland and being forced to give her young boy for adoption.  Her plight makes its way to Sixsmith who at first is not interested in human interest stories, but Philomena’s anguish kindles a curiosity within Sixsmith and eventually grows into a crusade that has the support of a publisher.  Stymied by false leads and lost records, Philomena’s desperate search for her adult son leads to a revelation and the truth despite the dogmatic doctrines of a holy institution.

Simultaneously a love story of a mother for her child and an investigative mystery, this is essentially a two person play, in which Philomena and Martin are contrasts in personality and background-she has a naïvety about her while he is a born cynic.  That she must experience a full spectrum of emotions during her journey from shame to anticipation to despondency contrasts with Martin’s determination, anger, and frustration. 

As expected, Dench (Skyfall, Notes on a Scandal) excels in the sensitive role of an older woman anxious to reconnect with her son. She even gets the nuances and behavior of a woman who has had a sheltered, broken life and lacks the sophistication and social graces of normalcy. This detail is nice texture to her character.  Like the sole photograph she has of her son, she clings to memories and hopes of redemption.  Coogan is quite convincing as the determined reporter, quite a contrast to his comedic roots in British television and film.

There is liberal use of flashbacks to show Philomena’s life as a teenage girl.  Sometimes dredging old memories can cause great pain not only for Philomena, but for other people who hold clues to her son’s whereabouts.  What become of him?  What kind of relationships and profession did he have in life?  And perhaps, most importantly, did he ever wonder about his birth mother? 

The film shows how life can be a series of events punctuated by remarkable links and coincidences particularly in one revelatory moment that serves as a remarkable thread that binds the principals together.  Some antiquated themes recall the stigma of being an unmarried mother and the practice of adopting illegitimate children through the church.  In some ways this film is the flip side to The Cider House Rules. 

It calls into question how much an institution like the Catholic Church may or may not have been  complicit in the knowledge or whereabouts of her son.  It seems too obvious to place responsibility and condemn the Catholic Church, the very foundation of faith, and its nuns as villains.  In fact you wish you could learn much more about the motives and thinking of the older nuns and countless other nameless victims that passed through the abbey; Philomena is but one story.  What about Philomena’s life beyond the abbey? We see that she also has a grown daughter, and yet we don’t have those details.

After all that has transpired, the detective work, and globetrotting from Europe to the United States, there is only the love between a mother and her son.  In the end, a mother’s hope and a reporter’s quest become a heartfelt search for the truth, a truth born of love that transcends time.

***1/2 of **** stars