2013 drama
Rating: 15/20 (Jen: 18/20)
Plot: A disgraced journalist looks to get back in the game and decides to put off a book on Russian history in order to take a human interest story. He encounters the titular old broad who is looking for a son who she claims the nuns took away from her and sold to an American couple. The pair journey across the pond (that's the way the English say it) to search for the lost son. Unfortunately, he's not wearing a red-and-white-striped shirt and hat and is not easy to find.
Another best picture nominee based--very loosely, depending on who you listen to--on a true story. It doesn't make nuns look very nice. Or very hot for that matter. Speaking of hot, was I the only person who both expected and wanted a love scene between the two leads here? That's a missed opportunity if there ever was one. Of course, it wouldn't have lost verisimilitude, but does it have it anyway? This feels a little like a biased documentary although it all makes for some good storytelling. I enjoyed the characters. Coogan, who also wrote the screenplay, makes a good foil for Judi Dench who is superb as the kind of dotty but impossible-not-to-love Philomena. Magnanimous and wiser-than-you-think, you just want to root for her to have at least some closure. An actress of Dench's caliber can throw out a flippant line yet manage to reveal years of guilt and regret and sadness beneath all those wrinkles. Yet another old person movie character whom I liked a lot. And I liked how the relationship between Coogan and Dench evolved throughout their journey. The story's touching enough that I don't really care all that much if I'm being manipulated by the whole thing. There's a punch emotionally, but it's a quiet punch, and this movie is easier to swallow because director Stephen Frears and the screenplay allow for divergent tones to mesh. This never quite sinks into melodramatic sludge, and there's plenty of room for levity and humor. The sad parts are subdued, mostly because of how forgiving and at peace Philomena is throughout the whole thing, and you could even be talked into deciding that the ending is a happy one even though the character doesn't exactly get everything she wants. Philomena's story is a story of contemporary injustice that needed to be told, and it's a treat that it was told so well with a very good screenplay and that powerful performance.
This just misses being a great film. There is a great blend of humor and characterization. The only thing that kept me from rating this higher was frustration at the mom for allowing the original loss and not pushing harder later, and the feeling that the movie is a bit too manipulative. It is amazing how powerful a sweet, poignant soundtrack can be when combined with old home movies. Jeez. Also a 15, but I could understand why some could rate it higher or lower..
ReplyDeleteManipulative is right. I had such mixed feelings with this one. Part of me wanted to like it a lot more, and part of me wanted to sort of hate it.
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't Philomena push harder later? I think it has to be the psychological influence of her upbringing. She's a very passive person, even to the point where she can't be angry at all after she finds out how much she was lied to by those nuns. I think she was just brought up to accept things. It sort of adds another dimension of sadness.