And as if
as to purposefully contradict what I have just been going on and on about, we
have this little number. A true story, no less, of one woman’s quest to learn
the truth about her past and the bitter-sweet revelations that are born from
this quest… Oh how that description
would fluster the real Philomena. “It’s nothing as grand as all that” she might
say. But you see, it was. Along with Martin Sixsmith, accurately described in
one review as a “world weary political journalist” we follow Philomena through
her quest and learn, maybe to our surprise, that in the midst of the darkest
and saddest tales there may well be something truly beautiful and
life-affirming.
Philomena
(Judi Dench) is an unassuming little old lady of Irish descent. But she is
harbouring a secret. A secret she is so ashamed of, even her adult daughter has
only just found out. The daughter approaches Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan)
with this story. She has met him completely by chance and could not have come
at a better time really as Martin has recently been dismissed from the Labour
party under a cloud and rather unsure of what to do with himself. A nice human
interest story is what he thinks he needs to get his name out there – and this
sounds just up his street. Philomena’s secret is that she had had a son when
she was only a teenager herself. Her family had forced her into a convent where
her son had been removed from her and given up for adoption. All this was nigh
on 50 years ago of course. But Philomena still hopes against hope she may find
him some day. Martin decides this quest is just what he needs to re-ignite his
journalistic career so offers to help her. The quest will take them further
than they ever expected to go and reveal more than either ever hoped to
discover – not just about the fate of Philomena’s son, but about themselves
too…
Now its
stories like this that make me realise how hard it is for any fiction of any
kind to actually match reality. You know how we (ehm, well, I) sometimes accuse
films of being “unrealistic” because the endings are too happy or they are
overall “too” optimistic? Well what do we make of stories like this then?
Because Philomena’s story is sad, don’t get me wrong, it’s about as sad as they
get. I have written a previous article on a similar convent in Ireland - the Magdalene Laundries, check the review
out here if you missed it – and what they did to the girls who were forced to
live there, what they did was nothing less than utterly soul-destroying and
horrendous. And yet Philomena is a very positive if slightly naïve little old
lady who has kept everything that is positive within her soul. She is even
quite devout, despite all the odds that seem to push her to lose her faith
entirely. Her positivity is such that she ends up at first annoying, but later
actually changing the rather hard-hearted Sixsmith.
And then
there is the story of Anthony – Philomena’s son. Because as you can probably
guess, there wouldn’t be that much of a film if they hadn’t discovered what
happened to him. Now, I won’t give anything about “what happened” away, simply
because it would ruin so much of the story if you went into the film knowing
the answer. But suffice it to say he didn’t quite turn out how one thought he
might. The story is a truly wonderful mixture of sadness and real beauty. Not
trappings, but the real stuff that matters. One has to remember, I suppose,
that life is really almost always a balance and that we need to learn to see
the beauty in every single thing no matter how tough it may seem.
You rolled
your eyes when you read that, right? I know. It sounds like such a cliché. But
I reckon this is one of those things that became a cliché for a reason. I won’t
go as far as making a really sweeping statement as to there being good in every
evil – sometimes there really isn’t. But a lot of the time, if you’re prepared
to give it a real chance, you’ll see something in there. A spark. A tiny light.
Something. I think this is why this message comes so well from experienced
actors such as Coogan and Dench – both equally spectacular throughout. I can’t
seem to shake my impression of Coogan as a comedian above and beyond everything
else but it’s complete nonsense of course. Anyway, I think coming from a
perspective of greater experience ,I think this message has even greater
realism; it takes a bit of experience –
and not all of it good – to know that this “cliché” about beauty in everything
is actually true.
Even if you
think I’m getting a bit soppy, you guys go ahead and watch Philomena. Sixsmith
didn’t see himself being fundamentally altered by the story of this little old
lady either – she was literally just a meal ticket back to journalism. But then
what happened? Why, he ended up writing this very book that became the film… So
that should tell you something…
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