'Philomena'. Starring Steve Coogan and Judy Dench. Directed by Stephen Frears.
The Roman Catholic Church has a lot to answer for. That's the message I took away from 'Philomena'.
In this film Martin Sixsmith and Philomena Lee played by Judy Dench come together. Their enemy in the end is the Catholic Church's true believers
Sixsmith is a former spin doctor who's now a journalist again. He lost his spin doctor's job with Tony Blair's government in the United Kingdom .Philomena is an ageing retired nurse who wants to track down her son from long ago.
Lee had a son when she was an unmarried 17 year-old in the 1950's in a very Catholic Ireland. The nuns of the Sacred Heart took her in and then took her baby. Then they sold it to rich Americans and then forced Lee to work for years for nothing in their nunnery. This, by the way, is a true story.
"Can you help me find him?" Lee asks Martin at the film's beginning.In the end they do track him down, as the journey from Ireland to the U.S. and back to Ireland again.
The film takes swipes at U.S. Republicans and Catholicism along the way. Philomena remains a devout Catholic. The cynical and snobby Martin is a non-believer. Martin belongs to the British upper middle class. Philomena isn't rich and loves mass culture.
Still, they stay friends as the argue, chatter and drive through beautiful Irish and American countrysides. Director Stephen Frears doesn't show us too many scenes from big city America and small city Ireland. Philomena and Martin do visit a few big historical sites in Washington, D.C. And Martin does try to jog along some scenic pathways.Yet overall 'Philomena' takes place in countryside and suburbs.
"The Catholic Church should go to confession," an enraged Martin says near the film's end. I agree but I don't think that's going to happen.
'Philomena' in the end is a fell good film and a good film too. It show us a past that the Catholic Church fathers would rather hide.
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