Top 50 Actresses, #17 - Judi Dench: "Philomena" (2013)

Movie Stats:
Released 2013 (Italy)
British, American & French, in English
Director - Stephen Frears
Stars - Judi Dench, Steve Coogan

Plot Summary:
Based on a true story, cynical journalist Martin Sexsmith (Coogan) helps elderly Philomena Lee (Dench) search for the son who was taken away from her by a convent when she was a teenager.

Warnings:
Blue language; minor gore.

Bad Stuff:
I don’t find Coogan especially believable in this serious role.

I’m not a fan of big, dramatic confrontation scenes in film, especially when they occur between strangers. For example, the “dogged-journalist-stick-a-foot-in-the-door” scene or the “yell-at-nuns” scene. Maybe I’m naive, but I don’t believe that people do those sorts of things in real life, so it tends to take me right out of the movie as I think to myself, “That would never happen. They would call the police!”

Good Stuff:
It shines a spotlight on a topic that is woefully ignored across all media.

Apart from the slight skepticism I’ve thrown in Coogan’s direction, the acting is very good.

I enjoy the friendship that forms between Martin and Philomena.

About the Performance:
Dench is great. Her performance is really what sold the film for me. She’s entirely believable as a woman with a long-ago wound that has never healed. Most of her role calls for her to be understated, but Dench does an excellent job of portraying what’s underneath the “stiff upper lip” exterior. You can feel what she feels, even when she’s not actively expressing it.

Other performances of Dench’s I’ve reviewed: Shakespeare in Love.

The Verdict:
I watched this film on a whim last year. My intention was to watch bits and pieces of it again to “refresh” my memory before writing this review, but when I went to do so, I sadly discovered that it’s no longer available for free on Amazon Prime. So this is all from memory. I absolutely loved this movie. It’s very emotional; I cried like a baby. One of the things I admire most about it is that there’s an obvious direction the Philomena/Martin relationship could have gone (mother/surrogate son) that it didn’t go in. I truly appreciate those rarely portrayed platonic relationships between women and men, especially ones with such a large age gap. It’s nice to see some age diversity in film. I do think that the movie occasionally  gets overdramatic, but for the most part it’s a lovely little story about grief, loss, perseverance, and friendship.

I give it 4.5 stars.