PHILOMENA by Stephen Frears

When Stephen Frears challenged at the Venice Film Festival presentation of his new film to show it to the Pope, his statement may have been slightly misleading. Frears has never been a controversial director, even when tackling difficult issues such as the royal family’s reaction to Princess Diana’s death in The Queen. In Philomena, he takes on one of the vilest scandals in Catholic Church history, and does it with a lot of finesse and experience.

 

This is the story of the titular Irish woman played by Judi Dench, whose son was taken away from her by the Magdalene Sisters in Roscrea when she was very young. The Sisters also had her sign documents and papers where she guaranteed that she would never enquire about her baby’s whereabouts. We find her in London, many years later. She is a widow and has an older daughter, yet she still thinks about her lost boy and cannot put her soul to rest. In comes down and out correspondent Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) who comes across her story fortuitously and sees it as an opportunity to revive his journalistic career. So he sets off on a journey with Philomena Lee, which takes them to the States, in search of her son.

 

It is the typical odd couple road trip structure, made all the more entertaining by the contrasting personalities of the two lead characters. Martin, in fact, is a cynical and often snobbish man. In fact, Frears makes no mystery of the fact that his reasons for wanting to get involved in the story are purely selfish. He even initially dismisses Philomena’s story as another ‘human interest’. However, eventually, he too becomes emotionally invested in her harrowing tale as their journey progresses. Philomena on the other hand is a remarkable woman - good natured, positive and very down to Earth. Likeable from the very start, she seems to have this incredible ability of seeing the good side of even the worse things.

 

The difference is also fruitful for the film’s darker and most sensible side – the one dealing with the theme of religion. While Martin calls himself a devoted atheist, Philomena’s take on spirituality is more unusual. Despite the suffering she had to endure as a result of the Church, she remains a faithful believer – at least of the spiritual side of Catholicism. This not only provides two compelling viewpoints on the delicate theme, but also portrays two radically different reactions to the story’s developments. Philomena is more passively silent about it. Her reaction is pretty unusual though certainly admirable for different reasons. Sixsmith on the other hand is outraged and angered about the whole affair, much like Philomena’s own daughter.

 

This approach just follows a rigorous policy of balance that Frears follows so well and that makes the film such a successful and very intelligent crowd pleaser. Beginning with the wonderful screenplay closely adapted from Sixsmith’s own book by Jeff Pope and Steve Coogan, which remarkably balances the comedy with the drama and has already won the Best Screenplay Award at this year’s Venice Film Festival. This makes Philomena very entertaining, while its solid structure and careful character development makes the story more accessible. Knowing Coogan’s characteristic intelligent brand of comedy, the film’s tasteful comedy should not come across as too surprising. There is never a descent into tastelessness even when Dench finds herself uttering words such as ‘clitoris’ and ‘bi-curious’ in the most natural of ways.

 

That is precisely the work’s winning key. Philomena is, in fact, one of the few films that genuinely make one laugh and cry at the same time. It is a film that painfully breaks your heart with its plot developments and then comforts you as it progresses. That is what makes the road trip a deeply influential spiritual and emotional journey.

 

Judi Dench is praise worthy as Philomena. Her performance reveals a true connection to her character, which was also reflected in the many press conferences and interviews she conceded after the presentation of the film, where she spoke about her and the rest of the gang having a moral obligation in bringing her story to life in the most respectful of ways. Dench in her performance as Philomena is able to build an compelling emotional bridge with the audience through the endless array of emotions that her face portrays. It’s impossible not to fall for her charm, her soft spoken ways, her impressive unbearable lightness of being which is even more admirable when we take into consideration the terrible tragedy she experienced.

 

Playing opposite her is Steve Coogan, who seems to have reached his level of maturity in playing dramatic roles with his performance as Sixsmith. The etiquette of comedian does not stand. Critics will have a tough time in forcing comments linking this performance to Coogan’s Alan Partridge routine. As he has shown in previous more dramatic roles in films like 24 Hour Party People and the emotional divorce drama What Maisie Knew that was released earlier this year, Coogan is well capable of restraining his comedic abilities in favour of a more sensible and intense routine. Here, he must also be praised for his work as co-writer and co-producer.

 

Nevertheless, as mentioned before, Philomena is thankfully no soap opera or cheesy melodrama. Therefore, both Dench and Coogan do get a chance to share their wonderful chemistry in both the drama and the comedy. But there is also a lot of bittersweet underlying irony – such as the autographed pictures of Jane Russell hanging on the walls of the Sisters’ quarters. The Magdalene Sisters had been represented before in Peter Mulan’s Palm d’Or Irish film. The two films are quite different in approach. The Magdalene Sisters was much more brutal and unceremonious. In Philomena, we get to see the different generations of nuns, from the more blatantly colder one of Philomena’s youth to the modern ones, who are much kinder in refusing to help her in any way. While both of these films are very different and remarkable in their own ways, it’s simply too hard to make the Sisters seem sympathetic in any way.

 

Stephen Frears has hence delivered his best work since arguably The Queen, and once again the leading lady in his film looks to be one of the favourites for the most coveted golden statuette in the world of cinema. The film, however, is more than the already celebrated and much publicised wonderful Judi Dench performance. Hailed as a crowd-pleaser, this film is a deeply involving, superbly scripted portrayal of tragedy overflowing with elegance, taste and most importantly humanity.