Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Judi Dench, Steve Coogan, Mare Winningham, Michelle Fairley, Neve Gachev, Charlie Murphy, Simone Lahbib, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Charles Edwards. Xavier Atkins, Wunmi Mosaku, Alan Davis.

True stories that are given celluloid treatment usually veer into the realms of films that gloss over certain aspects of life just in case it upsets someone of a particular calling, not so in the case of Philomena. This is a film that doesn’t shy away from the monstrous way in which some girls were treated in Ireland when they became pregnant.

It is a subject that even the best informed person on the street cannot hope to wade into blindly and even when knowledge is at a premium, the effects that are shown on the human psyche are of paramount importance to note down. It is a story that Steve Coogan, as both a writer and an actor deserves great plaudits for and it is a colossal undertaking by the Director, Stephen Frears to get the sublime splendour of rural Ireland and counteract it with the terrible truth behind the story down on film. The pairing is one that, in this case, works wonders.

For Steve Coogan, you either believe him to be a comedy giant of the modern age or someone you wouldn’t go along to see if he was giving away free tickets to his show 20 yards from your house and he promised you that he would walk you back safely to your home afterwards. In Philomena, there is an abundance of reasons for liking the man, but only one real one matters, as a straight actor in a role that requires depth and sensitivity he excels. It may be working alongside Dame Judi Dench, it may be the role as Martin Sixsmith in which he fits into as comfortable as finding a pair of much loved slippers and being poured your favourite tea, whatever the reason; Steve Coogan gives a superb and compelling performance.

For Dame Judi Dench, the years of performing as M in the James Bond franchise have given her the extra international gravitas to be one of the U.K.’s finest actors. A woman with a great sense of humour and who can carry solemnness as if it was the precious commodity in the world, the veteran actor who seems to give five star performances in everything she does. From Mrs. Brown to Notes On A Scandal to Shakespeare In Love and beyond, a film it sometimes seems isn’t worth doing in the U.K. if it hasn’t got her name attached to it. Her delight at seeing the Lincoln Memorial, a sight to stir anybody’s righteousness was only heightened at the moment of realisation of what had happened to her son. Both beautiful; both captured on film expertly and both tugged at the heart-strings of the viewer.

Philomena is a film that deals with great hardship, a shocking and ugly truth of the way women and girls were treated by fellow women in the name of religion and yet throughout, was told with great compassion, the beauty of grace and with the almighty kick of anger that is reserved for any regime that makes money out of people’s misery.

Steve Coogan has never been better, Dame Judi Dench is and will always be tremendous and Philomena is a story that is required viewing.

Ian D. Hall