Hello Write Readers,
At this time last year, I had just finished Amour, which was my final review to be submitted before the Academy Awards were televised, and it’s interesting to me that this year my final review is Philomena, which I equated to “the Amour of 2014” when I heard about it.
In case you were thinking that’s what was happening, let’s set the record straight. Philomena is a BRILLIANT film directed by Stephen Frears (based on the book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee by Martin Sixsmith) and starring Madam Judi Dench and Steve Coogan. Philomena is nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Madam Judi Dench and Best Picture. The story of Philomena Lee is tragic and heartbreaking and wonderful – as a young girl, Philomena (Judi Dench) is impregnated after sneaking around a corner with a young man at a fair in 1951, and her father tells everyone she is dead and sends her to a convent in Ireland. She gives birth to a beautiful baby boy, and is forced to work at the convent for 4 years as an indentured servant, and her baby is taken from her and given to a lovely couple who we presume can’t have children. Philomena spends 50 years in silence about what happened to her and her child, until she can bear it no longer. She ends up telling journalist Martin Sixsmith about her troubles, and he agrees to write a story about her. Off they trot to America, after discovering that the nuns at the convent are amazingly unhelpful, to find out what has happened to Philomena’s long lost son Anthony. Along the way, both Philomena and Martin discover things about themselves, and begin to find happiness.
Dear holy heck this film is awesome. I loved every single minute. I don’t need to say anything about the acting because MADAM JUDI DENCH IS IN IT. And she’s brilliant, as she always is, in every single film. I want to be as talented an artist as she is in another life. The writing is hilarious, and Madam Dench delivers each line with such precision that you can’t help but laugh. I was guffawing in the nearly empty theater, along with approximately 12 other individuals (mind you, it was a 10a film on a Sunday morning, weeks and weeks after the release of the film) at almost everything she said. What a delightful comedian Judi Dench is. Steve Coogan is the perfect straight man and counterpart to Philomena, as the dry and frustrated journalist who is smarter than everyone he knows and yet career-less, due to his being thrown under the bus about something or other. He is angry, and terse, and has so much to learn from the joyful and forgiving Philomena. This film partnership was an astonishment of casting- utterly perfect. I can’t begin to imagine another actor who would have better complimented the miraculous Judi Dench. (Can you tell I have a girl crush on her? If you want one too, just look up old pictures of her.)
You know what’s also wonderful about this film? The writing. I think I mentioned it earlier, but it bears repeating. The grand writers of this film, Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope, really nailed it. I don’t think I’ve written a single review this year in which I’ve mentioned the writing of a film, and now I know why – it’s not noticeably amazing. Until now. Every piece of dialogue makes sense. There is nothing superfluous about anything said in this movie, not one little and, of, or the. (Really I just count prepositions. Don’t you?) Every pause and silence, all of the thinking sounds; they are all perfectly needed and poignant and delightful. There is NO exposition in this film, none whatsoever. Everything is told in a matter of fact way, informing the audience as it moves the plot along. Even the flashbacks, which normally I despise, were grand. My hat is permanently off to Coogan and Pope, and anyone who would like to argue this point may have several seats. There can be no dispute. (That’s just said for dramatic effect, of course you may think what you like, write readers!) I’m just dying to read the book, now, to see if it’s as breathtaking as the movie.
The storyline itself is even more painful because it is true. But this doesn’t feel like a sad film; it doesn’t feel despondent, dejected, or even a bit in the doldrums. (Oh yeah, alliteration is fun.) Because of who Philomena Lee is, and because of how Judi Dench portrays her, we see an uplifting tale of a woman who gets what she needs finally, after years of searching. It’s not the outcome she hopes for (that’s as close to a spoiler as I’ll get today), but it’s possibly the best possible outcome for the viewer, because we see the glory in acceptance. Goodness, how she manages to rise above! It’s phenomenal! And because Martin is not nearly so patient or good as Philomena, we also have an outlet for the feelings we wish Philomena would express; the feelings she deserves to express, were she not better than all of that entirely.
I also loved the cinematography, the flashbacks that are like watching an old film, and the beautiful views of Ireland, and my hometown/the nation’s capital. But there’s nothing flashy about this film. It’s subtle, and completely character driven. I hate to say that I didn’t really notice anything else, but I think that’s because we aren’t supposed to. When you spend an hour and a half completely keyed into the main characters, hanging on every word, you don’t notice anything else. There is nothing else to see. There is only Judi Dench. And Steve Coogan, I guess. And this relationship, this perfect friendship (if you can call it that), this spontaneous act of life, flinging two individuals together so they can learn from one another.
This is a glorious film. I have doubts about it winning, because it’s BBC, and because it wasn’t large and didn’t have a ridiculous budget, and because it was only 98 minutes long and not the enormous dirges we’ve come to expect, like Wolf of Wall Street, or American Hustle. It doesn’t have any filming gimmicks like Nebraska (I did say I liked the black and white, although it felt deliberately artsy in a put on sort of way), it’s not period, and there aren’t any great mustaches (American Hustle, or Dallas Buyers Club) and it isn’t focused on a controversial subject matter like AIDS, or slavery (it does talk about things that should be controversial and taboo, but because of how this film is, it just isn’t). This is just a well-made film, with great acting, great writing, decent filmmaking, and a story. This feels like a throw back to movies of old, without complications, without CGI. It’s just good. And so, I hope it takes home Best Picture. I don’t know if it will, but man am I hoping.
And the Best Actress race? That’s just going to be a b***h. Can we just give them all Academy Awards?
Live, Love, Learn,
Rebecca &