PHILOMENA

STARTS WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27

The incomparable Judi Dench and the ever-charming Steve Coogan form an unbeatable team in this alternately comic and heartbreaking true story of an Irish woman’s search for her long-lost son

The incomparable Judi Dench and the ever-charming Steve Coogan form an unbeatable team in this alternately comic and heartbreaking true story of an Irish woman’s search for her long-lost son. Based on the 2009 investigative book by BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith, The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, Philomena focuses on the efforts of Philomena Lee (Dench), mother to a boy conceived out of wedlock – something her Irish-Catholic community didn’t have the highest opinion of – and given away for adoption in the United States. In following church doctrine, she was forced to sign a contract that wouldn’t allow for any sort of inquiry into the son’s whereabouts. After starting a family years later in England and, for the most part, moving on with her life, Lee meets Sixsmith (Coogan), a BBC reporter with whom she decides to find her
long-lost son.
(UK/USA, 2013, 98 min., color, DCP | Director: Stephen Frears | Writers: Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope, based on the book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee by Martin Sixsmith | Cast: Judi Dench, Steve Coogan, Michelle Fairley, Mare Winningham, Nicholas Jones | 2013 Toronto Film Festival | Winner: Best Screenplay – 2013 Venice Film Festival)

“Frears, in fine form at 72, has proved himself a modest master at juggling the serious and the silly in such actors’ showcases as The Queen and Tamara Drewe; and the script by Coogan and Jeff Pope, brims with bright dialogue. Reserve an Oscar for Judi Dench” – Mary Corliss, TIME MAGAZINE