Philomena

Oh..what a great combination! Judi Dench and Steve Coogan. Seriously, the film is a heartfelt film. The movie also stars Anna Maxwell Martin from the Bletchley Circle who plays the daughter who helps her mother(Dench) find the son she gave up when she was a teenager. Coogan plays the journalist Martin Sixsmith who needs this human interest story to get back into journalism. Michelle Fairley plays the journalist's boss. Also Sophie Kennedy Clark plays the version of Judi Dench's character Philomena.

Naturally, Coogan's character is cranky while Dench's Irish Philomena is full of pleasant surprises. Of course, the story take a lot of twist and turns. Some will find controversy about the Catholic church. Still Philomena is a survivor and a devout Catholic, even if the nuns never kept of with the records of the child she have up and didn't go in search for him until he was 50.

“I’m never in a position to say ‘Who wrote this?’ Because I did! So I can absolutely phrase something in a way that feels natural. It empowers me to sidestep clichés and play to my strengths in terms of dialogue and character”-Steve Coogan

The real Martin Sixsmith and Philomena

"I read an article in the Guardian newspaper online in 2009. There was a photograph in the newspaper of Martin Sixsmith sitting on a bench next to Philomena, and when I looked at the photo I thought they looked like such an odd couple, this Oxbridge journalist and this working-class Irish woman. The tragedy was obviously very affecting, but the photograph of the two of them was key, because in the photograph she was laughing, and it’s so odd with the story.” — Steve Coogan as told to Vanity Fair

Truly, it is a film that will make you think. Especially, how hard life was not so long ago, and the choices people make and of course, their faith.  How history of our lives come full circle sometimes. Honestly, I'm so glad I finally got to see this film. Coogan wrote the screenplay. And I so enjoyed the character that Judi Dench created.

STORYLINE: A world-weary political journalist picks up the story of a woman's search for her son, who was taken away from her decades ago after she became pregnant and was forced to live in a convent.

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