Masterful Movie

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

I think that Philomena is in many ways comparable to Vertigo, the classic 1957 Hitchcock movie. Let's see in what they are different. Vertigo is fictional. Its character, Scottie, is a middle age weary, depressed man while Philomena is a real senior citizen who is some kind of an idealist person. I found a similarity in the sense that both characters are victims of tragedies that have hurt them tremendously and marked out their life. Both tragedies were committed by evildoers not by natural disasters. Scottie and Philomena are characters involved in searches looking for answers that may heal their scars. Both characters are complemented by another person in their search. They founded their partners by chance. Unlikely Philomena, Scottie's partnership is dark and mysterious. Phil's partnership is unambiguous although non symmetrical. Martin would be professionally helpful to her but his heart is not fully into this pursuit. He is wounded after a setback related to his job as a high roller political journalist and at this point he is cynical and pessimistic. Both movies are emotionally complicated stories involving a travel to the past and in both cases it was resolved with subtlety, ability and talent. Philomena is actually a road movie since many of the leads are quite far apart. This implies a close interacting between Phil and Martin even more intense when we add the chasing of leads which entails new emotional brinks due to the hopes, doubts and uncertainty involved. Of course I am not going to get into details but there are few finding and leads that enhances the story. Movies which are inquisitive and go into obscure paths, to the heart of a tragedy, into places where individuals have been gravely injured are very hard to realize. When the backbone of a story is the theft of a toddler by catholic nuns is very hard to create art while holding anger, fury and sentimentality. Evildoers holding positions of power are common material for movies but you need a special vision to make them entertaining. Stephen Frears counted with an apt cast and crew. The adapted script is excellent. If you are familiar at all with Judi Dench's work, you can predict the quality of any of her roles but this time Dame Judi fleshed out Philomena with a tenderness that expresses a unique, real human being. Another outstanding performance.Steve Coogan very aptly expressed the nature of his character and the evolution from quiet cynicism to open, sincere anger. Stephen Frears implemented and balanced the golden elements available for this film. He creates an atmosphere that expresses the points of view of Philomena and builds a sequence of images and dialog that keep us our attention intact. As a director he took the job of master storyteller and excels at it.

This BBC film has everything I would want for a great movie. Martin Sixsmith's book is powerfully told. The screenplay is outstanding. The Direction by Stephen Frears is done at an excellent pace. Judi Dench and Steve Coogan make a power team as Philomena and Martin Sixsmith. The supporting cast is fine, but this film belongs too these main characters. Story is about a young teenager (Philomena played by Sophie Kennedy Clark) who has an erotic encounter with a young man, becomes pregnant and is taken in by a convent where she delivers a baby boy. The nuns, in 1952, were in the business of delivering single underage teenage girls babies and then selling them for adoption to rich folks (mostly Americans) in Scotland. The location settings for this in Northern Ireland, the UK, and the US make for many great settings as beckoned for the story. Baed upon a true story, Philomena, 50 years after having her baby, wants to find him after the nuns sold her little boy away from her over 50 years prior. Sixsmith, a former BBC reporter who has been fired, gets involved to try and help find Philomena's son. This takes them from Rocrea in Scotland, to the United States. While watching the first half of the movie, the viewer feels like she will, and there will be a happy ending.Then, she finds out her son is dead, and why. Actually Michael Sixsmith leads her to find out where her son is. Rocrea nunnery in Scotland is no help and is actually the ultimate road block to Philomena finding out where her son was and who he was sold too.The emotion of the story is raised by the process, very old fashioned, balanced against the group of folks wanting to learn who he really was. It is a story we can not put down and at slightly over 90 minutes does not let the viewer escape without touching moments in the film. It is all quite adorable really.

I watched this movie because of the great actors in the cast, but found it to be really predictable and boring from beginning to end. The cast was great, lovely locations, but not really a movie that i will remember in a couple year's time. Maybe because i strongly dislike babies and motherhood and all that and all the "oh, pity me, they took my baby away" leaves me unaffected? i found myself rolling my eyes in exasperation instead of being moved by its obvious twists and ending. It is supposed to be a moving, inspirational movie for some reason. Well, it didn't work for me (and some other people i know) despite the fact that i cry easily with movies, specially if it involves injustice.

Finally! A movie about what went on in that time era.. a time of cruel hypocrisy, when unwed motherhood was akin to criminal activity.Judy Dench is amazing - she assume the role completely, and portrays the lifetime trauma that has affected everyone who has been a 'victim' of having to relinquish a child to the 'system' or, in this case, 'The Catholic Church'I found this movie heartbreaking, but at least I now have a sense of satisfaction that these atrocities have finally been brought out into the open. Adopted children who were told 'their mother didn't want them' are now given the opportunity to see what REALLY happened.