This is a tough movie to grade and review because I was left with so many mixed emotions. It has the wild tonal shifts of a Tyler Perry movie (verbal comedy one minute and rage-inducing melodrama the next). It doesn’t quite feel real (I never really bought the odd-couple friendship of Judi Dench’s too gullible character and Steve Coogan’s snarky ex-journalist) even though it’s based on a true story. And I wasn’t crazy about the cheery way it keeps showing us outrageous things. “Philomena” is PG-13 and has a quaintly funny tone throughout even as the central conspiracy it’s showing us brings up real, R-rated questions about religious tyranny, warped religious guilt for things that aren’t wrong at all, and how morality and religious faith are two different things and sometimes even at odds.
What Works: Judi Dench is de-glammed and down to Earth in a way I can’t remember seeing her before. Sure, her character is a little frustrating at times (this woman is literally too nice for her own good) but there is a true warmth there that’s a complete 180 from most of Dench’s best known roles. Coogan pretty much plays himself but who else would he be at this point? He’ll never be a dramatic heavy-hitter but his slight, cynical everyman persona is put to good effect here.
Still, the real reason to see this movie isn’t for their (to me) forced buddy-comedy coupling so much as the outrageous abuses of the catholic church detailed here. People get so swept up in the pedophilia business that they forget about a lot of the other bad stuff and this will offer just one more reason on why you shouldn’t let them anywhere your family. By the end, the crimes committed against Philomena will make you angry in a surprising way that makes you want this story shouted from the rooftops…
What Doesn’t: …if only the movie shared that anger. It is so busy giving us a twee, safe comedy of exploration that it almost soft pedals the injustices accounted for in this movie. And as I said before, it’s a little hard to fully wrap my head around a movie that seems just as concerned with laughing at Philomena’s delight at an American breakfast buffet as it does with injustice, religious oppression (both committed early on and culturally forcing gay people into the closet), and puritanical totalitarianism.
What I Would Have Done Differently: The movie feels like it’s being begged to go deeper, darker, and more serious but the director and script seem to resist this at every turn. Maybe this is just a tribute to the sunny outlook of the real Philomena but it shortchanges the cathartic experience the film should have been. It’s hard to look at the ending as anything but deeply unsatisfying. Still, a story that should be at least heard about to fully understand the depths of the church’s misdeeds. Grade: B-