Review: Philomena

If a British drama made by the BBC is one of the Best Picture contenders, you definitely need to watch it.

Directed by Stephen Frears who is known for doing Dangerous Liaisons and the massively overrated The Queen is now having to contend with this incredible true story.

For those who have seen Peter Mullan's 'The Magdalene Sisters', then you definitely know what this film is about and what your are about to let yourselves into.

Philomena is a pretty simple story to get into, so I can see this appealing to the widest possible audience. But its easy to work out plot has big consequences and heartbreak. As the film goes on, you see different sides of the main characters and the levels of the situation gets slowly cranked up into one big emotional finale.

One part of the story has made this a controversial one and has been seen as an attack on Christianity. I did not feel it was bashing at the religion. I felt they were just highlighting wrongs by certain individuals and left you to make your own judgement.
With so much emotion and sadness, there is still a strange amount of very amusing comedy moments. It gives us a very interesting side to not just the story, but the characters and of course the brilliant writing.

Dame Judi Dench and a serious Steve Coogan are just great. How often do we praise Judi Dench? Pretty much every time she appears on screen in anything. Usually playing hard-nosed characters, we see a more gentle and humerus role. Her performance seems very true and real which always wins over people.
As for Coogan, he is quite a revelation. We usually see him in comedies, but even with the comedy moments Coogan is great at bouncing off the powerful Dench to create one of the top on-screen partnerships of 2013.

Philomena is quite an experience about a story that for many is still going on. One story out of a thousand similar ones. It will leave you questioning your own resilience and it is bound to be a high emotional ride for many viewers. It may not have the wow factor as some of the other Best Picture contenders, but for its all out drama this is certainly something special. Top British drama never fails.

Rating: 9/10