Philomena (2013) - Dench astounds in Frears' powerful true-story drama

♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

+ Best True-Story Movie of the Year

+ Best English Movie of the Year

 

The posters for Stephen Frears' Philomena didn't catch my interest, as they seem rather bland and certainly don't relate the actual power of the film, in my opinion

 

Martin has been fired from his political job and looks for a story for a book, when one happens to fall into his lap: Ageing Philomena had her bastard child taken from her by nuns 50 years ago.

As noted above, the Philomena posters don't relate the film's narrative power, which is clear all the way through Jeff Pope (The Place of the Dead (1997, TVM) and Steve Coogan's (The Parole Officer (2001)) Oscar-nominated, excellent adapted script, based on Coogan's character Martin Sixsmith's (Putin's Oil (2010)) 2009 book, The Lost Child of Philomena Lee. The film is directed by English master filmmaker Stephen Frears (Florence Foster Jenkins (2016)) in exemplary fashion; it plays our emotional chords as a violin with great command throughout.

Philomena is technically astute, with an outstanding score by Alexandre Desplat (Reality (2012)). Coogan and Judi Dench (The World Is Not Enough (1999)) illuminate the screen as few can and both stand out as completely real characters while also often being downright hilarious. Dench has never been better than here and is really something of a miracle. All the secondary characters are ideally cast.

Philomena is among the year's best, a rare gem that I can't recommend enough.

 

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Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 12 mil. $

Box office: 100.1 mil. $

= Huge hit

[Philomena premiered August 31 (Venice International Film Festival) and runs 98 minutes. Filming took place in Maryland, Washington D.C., England and Northern Ireland from October 2012 - January 2013. The film only takes minor artistic licenses in its relation of the true story. It opened #28 in 4 theaters with 128k $ and peaked at #8 in 835 theaters in North America, where it grossed 37.7 mil. $ (37.6 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 18.4 mil. $ (18.4 %) and Australia with 10.1 mil. $ (10.1 %). The film was nominated for 4 Oscars: For Best Picture (lost to 12 Years a Slave), Actress (Dench) (lost to Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine), Adapted Screenplay (lost to 12 Years a Slave) and Score (lost to Gravity). It was also nominated for 3 Golden Globes and 4 BAFTAs. Philomena is certified fresh at 92 % with a 7.8 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Philomena?