Philomena

And suddently it's the end of another season.  We've been saving the best until last, or rather we had to wait until Philomena was avilavble on DVD.

To boost our audience numbers we're serving Irish stew and cheeses, and hopefully a load of Guinness will arrive here tomorrow.  Meanwhile I've just finished my notes:

Philomena

UK 2013                      98 minutes

Director:                      Stephen Frears

Starring:                        Judi Dench, Steve Coogan and Anna Maxwell Martin

Awards and Nominations

• Nominated for four Oscars, including Best Film, Best Actress (Judi Dench) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Steve Coogan)
• Won BAFTA for Best Adapted Screenplay (Steve Coogan) and nominations for Best Actress (Judi Dench), Best Film and Best British Film
• A further 19 wins and 36 nominations

“Philomena is something yearned for and lusted after by film-makers and journalists alike – a really good story.  It's a powerful and heartfelt drama, based on a real case, with a sledgehammer emotional punch and a stellar performance from Judi Dench, along with an intelligently judged supporting contribution from Steve Coogan.  Yet the film's apparent simplicity and force come to us flavoured with subtle nuances and subtexts, left there by the people who brought this story to the public.”

Peter Bradshaw

 Following his unexpected defenestration as New Labour Director of Communications in 2002 Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) is working as a freelance journalist when he comes across the extraordinary story of an elderly Irish woman called Philomena Lee (Judi Dench): as a teenage unmarried mother she had been placed in one of the Irish Republic’s notorious Magdalene Laundries (“Why do they call this heartless place Our Lady of Charity?”) and her son was put up for adoption by childless Catholic Americans, and now in her old age she wants to track him down.  Sixsmith then takes Philomena to America on a mission to America in search of her son.

The film received its premier at the Venice Film Festival where it received rave reviews, was nominated for the Golden Lion and won the award for Best Screenplay.  Judi Dench also won great praise for her performance, with Catherine Shoard in The Observer commenting:

"At 78, she skips through scenes, hitting a dozen bases a minute, raising laughs here, tears there, never breaking sweat. This might be the sort of thing she can do in her sleep, but Dench never gives anything less than full welly.”

However when it came to the awards season Judi Dench lost out in both the Oscars and BAFTAs to Cate Blanchett’s barnstorming performance as Jasmine in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine.  Steve Coogan as Martin Sixsmith proves himself to be a good actor, but it is Dench who is the dramatic focus of the film and director Stephen Frears, in his best film since The Queen (2006), uses a steady hand to guide the two of them on their odd couple road trip around Ireland and America.


And here's the trailer: