IN WHICH WE REMEMBER THAT MOST SECRETS "COME OUT" EVENTUALLY... "PHILOMENA"

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… 

THE TRUE STORY OF THE BIRTH OF THE "24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE"

This, my dearies is for all “I was born too late” generation out there. It’s a brand of music popular with people born in the ‘70s really, but us, the early ‘80s generation just about caught onto its tail. And of course, there are some exceptional young people out there (although not that many these days) who recognise the genius of bands such as the Sex Pistols. Joy Division. James and the Happy Mondays (although this last band was a bit of a British phenomenon. Still.). Anyway, this is their story. The true story of the Manchester music scene in the ‘80s and ‘90s and more pivotally, of the one man who made that magical atmosphere possible : Tony Wilson.

Tony Wilson (played nothing short of brilliantly by Steve Coogan) is a journalist. A Cambridge graduate, he has high hopes of his life. The stories he is sent out to cover do not always match these expectations. Except one. One event that will change his life – and in fact the lives of many others. Now, the event in question is the first concert the Sex Pistols ever played in Manchester. This was back in the late ‘70s, before they actually took off you have to remember, so there were only 42 people there. Now, this looks more like a flop than a historical moment, I know. But as Wilson points out throughout the film, whether it’s crowded or not does not necessarily mean it’s not historical (I love his metaphors so I’ll let you discover them for yourselves).  So Wilson’s life changes. He opens a club. A record label. Signs bands like Joy Division and the Happy Mondays. Thus begins an absolute whirlwind of a night job for Wilson. His style is both unorthodox and not entirely sound economically. The changes he makes to the Manchester music scene however? Ground breaking.  The question is, does he have the stamina to see this whirlwind to the end? Or will the only end he actually sees end up being his own?

This film is brilliant on so many levels. Director Michael Winterbottom – and I’m sure Coogan as well as he’s quite the master of formats and such like – has made a film a bit unlike any other I have seen before. First of all, especially at the beginning – and I’m rather sad they didn’t follow through on this tendency but can see how it would be impractical – the film’s footage is interspersed very cleverly with actual footage of the great bands of the time singing. There are a lot of references to real life, a lot of celebrities of yesteryear (including, amusingly, Wilson himself – the real one that is - , don’t worry about missing him though, he gets pointed out to you) have cameos. It is very evidently a very affectionate film made by a crew that loved that music and / or that era. What is also original and  good, however, is the fact that Coogan will, every now and then, turn to the camera and explain what is going on. Not as Wilson though. As Coogan. It’s a brilliant device, a sort of Brechtian distanciation that pushes us to think about what we’re watching, and the fact that it is not actually fiction. Well the film is fiction, but you know what I mean, the events really happened. Most of the time. But don’t worry, Mr Coogan will explain that to you as well…