Philomena (movie)

A world-weary political journalist picks up the story of a woman's search for her son, who was taken away from her decades ago after she became pregnant and was forced to live in a convent.


A tragic story that exposes, yet again, the shocking policy of the Catholic Church in Ireland to "punish" single women who had babies outside of marriage by forcing them to work in convents and selling their "illegitimate" children. Judi Dench (Philomena) and Steve Coogan (Martin Sixsmith) are outstanding in their roles as the mother searching for her son after 50 years of silence and the journalist who partners with her to help her on her journey. Filmed and directed in the unique way the British do drama, it's almost too "nice" a portrayal - although there are moments of heart-rending grief. The evil of religious judgmentalism is counterbalanced by amazing forgiveness - it's a moving story of another stolen generation that needs to be told. Some have suggested that this movie is this years The King's Speech. But I don't think it is quite that good. Definitely worth seeing though.

overall=***1/2 ; acting=***1/2 ; story=**** ; humour=***1/2