Philomena is an odd, engaging mix of genres that we tend not to see coexisting in the same film. The latest from director Stephen Frears (The Queen, The Grifters) is a buddy movie, a detective story, a heart-warmer, a takedown of the Catholic Church and an exploration of mortality and redemption. If all that wasn’t enough, the movie is also based on a true story.
Judi Dench plays the title character, Philomena Lee, a retiree who has never forgotten her son, Anthony, whom was taken away from her when she was a teen. Growing up in a convent in Ireland in the 1940s, she got pregnant at 18 and then was pressured by the local nuns to send the child away to be adopted. Now in her 70s, Philomena has long ago lost any trace of her son’s whereabouts, but she catches a break when she’s introduced to Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan), a British journalist and Labour Party communications director who was fired in 2002 under a cloud of controversy. Martin insists he did nothing wrong, but his protestations don’t matter much when he’s trying to get back on his feet and find a new gig. Philomena’s incredible tale sounds to Martin like fodder for a great story, although this serious journalist is somewhat embarrassed by the fact that he’s lowering himself to write a human-interest piece.
Soon enough, though, he would discover that he’d get much more than an article out of the experience. Based on Sixsmith’s book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, Philomena would seem to have all the makings of a dark, investigative piece—we find out what happened to the boy in full—but the resulting film is unexpectedly funny. This is thanks to Coogan, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jeff Pope and adds just the right sardonic streak to his performance as Martin. What makes the movie such a droll time is that Martin, while polite, is somewhat condescending to the happily unsophisticated Philomena, this sweet old lady who reads trashy airport novels and is delighted by the simplest of things, like complementary hot-and-cold hotel buffets. Martin’s prickly, snotty superiority and Philomena’s guilelessness prove to be an endlessly enjoyable combination: It’s as if Dr. Gregory House and Jessica Fletcher decided to solve crimes together.