Judi Dench as ‘Philomena’

This film was a bit of an odd duck. Steve Coogan as journalist ‘Martin Sixsmith’ was superb. Judi Dench as ‘Philomena Lee’ was probably wonderful, she just tends to grate on my nerves. She had two outstanding scenes, one in the confessional and one where she forgave the bastard head nun.

As we all know, Philomena is now searching 50 years later for the son she was pretty much forced to give up as a child herself. Now that I think about it, the film might have tracked down the sperm donor also to see how he felt about the carnage he helped create in these two lives. What we do see is how this event from 50 years ago affected Philomena and her son Anthony, whose adopted parents named Michael.

The film’s center is the convent Roscrea, headed by the evil Nazi nun, Sister Hildegarde. In real life, the nuns probably found it necessary to sell the babies to American Catholics at 1,000 pounds a pop, in order to keep things running, it just looks bad. And they probably had a reason for not having a doctor and drugs available for the births these young mothers went through, but given the way it was portrayed by Weinstein  and Frears, it does look rather bad.

The audience is at the mercy of the storytellers. We hope they aren’t misleading us. But mothers and children being allowed to die in childbirth for no other apparent reason than spite, does strain credibility at times, but not others. Institutions as a whole could be rather screwed up back then (if not now). The Boy Scouts and the church were masters at covering up the sexual abuse of boys. It is only in the last 15 years or so that Iowa has had a safe haven law allowing women to drop off their newborn alive to a hospital, no questions asked.

What kind of nitwits were we? “Heaping shame” on unwed mothers? That certainly wouldn’t lead to the abuse of alcohol, drugs or the children now would it? What would we rather they had done, have an abortion? Certainly you wouldn’t sugar coat it, but I do believe a “where do we go from here?” attitude would have been more useful. How do we “pull ourselves up” would have been a good tact.

That could be the message of the makers of the film. You just don’t know. With producer Harvey Weinstein, he does have a history of anti-Catholic films, The Magdalene Sisters, The Butcher Boy, Priest and now Philomena. Since the messenger is questionable, you tend to question the message.

Still, the movie does make you think. The boy who grows up in a well-to-do family in America with unlimited opportunities, did have a different experience then what he would have being raised by a destitute unwed mother in Ireland. You just tend to be a little suspicious, when the only time the name of “Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” is heard, is when it is fairly spit out by the serpent like evil head nun when her treachery is revealed. That just tends to smack of something Hollywood would do, tying it to the most vile scene of the movie. But, as it is also when Philomena forgives the nun, you can also relate it in scope and power to He who forgave all our sins.