At turns funny, sad, heartwarming and sweet Philomena is beautiful film with the perfect pace and sensibility for a film that just as easily could have gone completely off the rails.

Based on a true story, the film follows the efforts of Philomena Lee (Judi Dench) to find and meet her son who was given up for adoption by the convent in which she was forced to live at work after giving birth at fourteen years old. Philomena has kept the existence of the child a secret from everyone , but on his 50th birthday decides to tell her daughter Jane (Anna Maxwell Martin). Jane meets Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan), a journalist who has recently fell from grace after political scandal, and asks him to help her mother uncover the identity and whereabouts of her son. Sixsmith is reluctant to take on a human interest story but decides to do it anyway as a possible way back into credibility. The journey the two take together is enormously heartfelt and compelling while at the same time funny, tragic and bittersweet.

Philomena is an amazing film for several reasons but the most profound of which has to be just how easily it could have fallen into overly sentimental pablum in less sure hands. Director Stephen Frears expertly manages the tone of the film to keep it on point at all times and delivers a film that hits every note properly with just the right amount of the appropriate note at the time. The screenplay, which was written by Coogan and Jeff Pope, goes a long way here too with just the right amount of humor, sentimentality, earnestness, cynicism, irreverence and  gravity to feel completely real and completely worthwhile. There is never a sour note in this film regardless of how challenging the material becomes and regardless of what happens to be going on.

Just as easy as bloated sentimentality would have been so too would it have been easy to present a one-sided argument and draw the players as caricatures to drive an agenda. Neither of those things happen here and you are presented with circumstances that are at once disturbing and horrifying but with a more level headed approach. The people involved are likewise given room to breathe and exist not as a set of descriptive attributes but who feel like real people doing what they think is best. This makes sense given it is a true story but it would be easy to vilify certain parties presented but the movie doesn’t take the easy way out and asks more of the audience.

The above sounds vague but I don’t want to get into too many specifics as this is a film best experienced by learning the details as the characters do. I went into it knowing that it was co-written by Coogan and co-starring Coogan, who I love, and that it is about adoption which is of particular significance to me as an adopted person myself. Knowing only those facts going in I felt that the story unfolded beautifully and I was moved to tears more than once.

The characters come to life here due in no small part to the performances and Steve Coogan and Judi Dench are both incredible in their roles with chemistry that meshes and repels in perfect amounts. Coogan provides a much needed cynical balance to Dench’s general optimism and in those times when her optimism fails, his support becomes that much more touching. I have a hard time imagining any of this working without the two of them in the lead roles and while Judi Dench received a much deserved Oscar nomination, I feel that it is a gross over site for Coogan not to have gotten one as well.

On a more personal note, I mentioned that I was adopted and that comes with some unique thoughts and feelings about where you come from, who your biological parents were and whether or not they think of you. Philomena addresses these questions in a powerful way for me and I was profoundly moved by many of these themes and issues. This is not to say that you had to have been adopted to connect here but if you are, there is something extra here for you.

Conclusion [10 out of 10]

Philomena went from a film not even slightly on my radar to being one of my favorite films of the year. It was a very pleasant surprise and I cannot imagine the person who doesn’t care for it. I cannot recommend this film more highly and I am grateful to have seen it. It doesn’t have the flash and buzz of a lot of other awards season films but it has it where it counts which is depth and quality. I dearly loved this film.