Movie review: Philomena

Judi Dench and Steve Coogan have good chemistry in Philomena.

Verdict: Bittersweet odd-couple dramedy

A formulaic, slightly saccharine version of a deeply moving real-life story, this new film by Stephen Frears is a striking departure for the comic star, Coogan. He produced and wrote an adaptation of the book by former journalist and Downing St spin doctor Martin Sixsmith.

Coogan plays Sixsmith who, newly sacked, decides to follow the story of an Irish woman (Dench) and the son she has not seen since he was 3.

This woman, Philomena Lee, was one of hundreds of teens who gave birth in Irish convents in the 1950s. Set to work in the convent's laundries, they nursed their children into toddlerhood, only to have them sold to well-heeled Americans.

The film, set in the early 2000s, charts the pair's search for Lee's now-50-year-old "baby", which takes them to the United States, where serious surprises await them. It also leads them back to the convent in Tipperary for a satisfyingly cathartic finale.

Coogan bought the rights to Sixsmith's source book, The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, though Frears, reportedly keen on lightening the tone, engaged writer Jeff Pope (Pierrepoint) to rework Coogan's draft into an odd-couple comedy.

The result is undeniably well-executed: the two principals have good chemistry, though the class difference (he lives in Knightsbridge; she calls the croutons in the buffet "lovely bits of toast") is somewhat belaboured. The perennially reliable Dench creates a character who is both complicated and believable.

But the decision to make a dark story lighter has not been without cost. Eschewing the uncompromising and harrowing realism that distinguished Peter Mullan's brilliant The Magdalene Sisters is an understandable commercial decision, but the finished film has an unevenness of emotional tone - part weepie, part comedy - that makes for a slightly lumpy viewer experience. As a result, a climactic scene in which Sixsmith cuts loose seeks to draw on emotional reserves it hasn't really built up.

For all that, it's a very watchable and warm-hearted yarn. Irritating implausibilities aside (real journalists occasionally take notes), it delivers what it promises.

Cast: Judi Dench, Steve Coogan
Director: Stephen Frears
Running time: 98 mins
Rating: M (offensive language, sexual references)
Opens: Boxing Day

- TimeOut