Plot: A journalist named Martin, has recently lost his job as a government adviser and if currently planning to write a book on Russian history. But during a party, he is approached by the daughter of a woman named Philomena who suggests to write a story about her. Philomena was forced to work for the nuns at Sean Ross Abbey 50 years ago, after she became pregnant from sleeping with a young man she met at a fair. Eventually she gives birth to a boy named Anthony, but he is soon taken away form her and given to a couple without letting her say goodbye. Despite the nun's repeatedly telling her that they can't help, Martin agrees to help Philomena finally find her long lost son.
I have to say, even with seeing this movie knowing that it's a best picture nominee, I liked this movie better than I thought I would. Did it stand a change against 12 Years A Slave? Oh goodness no. But as a movie on its own, it was definitely very good to watch. It gives us a very moving background about a mother and her lost son that really gets you when we see her son get taken away and how she's still desiring to see him his years later. And honestly, the story just got better from there. Without going into details, I along with my parents, and even Candra when I talked to her about the movie afterwords, had a very quick feeling as to how the story was going to end only 10 minutes into the movie. But thankfully, they wasted no time in trampling how we thought it was going to turn out, and even gave us a couple more twists that just made the story stronger as it went on. The main characters where also very enjoyable to watch. Steve Coogan was nice to see in a much more serious role than in a lot of other films that I've seen him in, and it's also pretty nice that he also co-produced this movie and co-wrote the screenplay. But the actor that most of us talked about after seeing this movie was Judi Dench as Philomena. This was another great performance from this woman and we all enjoyed it. She had a nice fun charm to her, but she still showed how torn Philomena still is with not being able to see her lost son. This also leads to some very good dialogue that really gets down to what people like Philomena can go through with this kind of situation - not just with losing her son, but also with her faith in The Lord and how she feels about her sin in sleeping with that young man and how she feels about the nun's from all of those years ago. And as a christian, I liked how they handled that. The very end - without giving anything away - was a very fitting ending that I feel was the right way in terms of showing one of the main things that should make Christians very different from other people. Now if I did have one little problem with this movie, it would revolve around the son and his knowledge of where he came from. As much as I enjoyed what we learned about him during the second half of the film, Candra made a really good point at how they didn't really get into how he knew anything about his past. This may turn out as something of a nitpick, but at the same time, she does raise a really good question.
And that's my review for Philomena. It had a very moving story with very good twists, likable main characters, and a very memorable performance from Judi Dench that for me, gives a very realistic and accurate way of life as a christian. It was not going to win best picture against 12 Years A Slave, like I said, but it's still a very good film that I recommend that you see if you haven't already.
Rating: 90%
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