I went to see Philomena, starring Judy Dench and Steve Coogan, based upon the book written by Martin Sixsmith about an Irishwoman's search for her son who was taken from her when he was a toddler and adopted by some Americans in about 1956. It was very good, some funnies and lots of sadness - a chick flick.
Judy Dench was excellent as always and much to my surprise, so was Coogan as journalist/author Sixthsmith who was originally reluctant to get involved with this mad Irishwoman. For those who don't know the story, I won't spoil it other than to suggest you go and see it.
Much of the action is in America as that's where her son was taken but it also includes Ireland and London. The scandal of the Magdalene Laundries features at the beginning and shows how inhuman the whole thing was, so many girls paid an enormous price for their mistakes, which in the 1950s was looked on as a mortal sin. Quite a few died in childbirth as did the babies.
It's based on a true story and the characters are real people, so go and see it. There are no TG elements at all.
Comments
a movie I need to see
I hate to think of how many Irish children ended up in the US. When I was a child a couple who lived near me adopted 2 children from Ireland. I wonder if they came from the same program depicted here.
Philomena
I went to see this film two weeks ago and went with the idea that I would not like it very much.I started watching and was so engrossed that I took my popcorn home uneaten.Judy Dench and Steve Coogan were very good and as you say Coogan made the transition from comedy to drama very well ,it was very moving in parts and I would recommend it.
devonmalc
Mad with power
I have a very humble opinion that buried in our racial memory there is something tying us to the chicken and there madness of the pecking to death the other chickens who are weaker physically.
What was done to the Magdalene Laundries was echoed in many places. Here there was a campaign nation wide to separate first peoples from there children. This was done to break our culture and to kill as many as they could. The number of graves in Carlisle PA just one of the Indian Schools accounted some years up to 70 plus percent of the kids sent there.
Russel Means the founder of the American Indian Movement. Who just recently died was forced into this system so it was maintained until recently. I was expelled from the Catholic church because of being a half breed.
When I asked Angharad about a related topic I discovered the same crock of compost being worked on another population who may have earned there mistreatment but with both parties allegedly being the followers of Christ should have known better. "What fools these mortals be." William really knew what he was talking about when he penned these words.
Michele White Wolf
With those with open eyes the world reads like a book
Best film this year
I think this is the best film I've seen all year, and surprisingly, it's Steve Coogan rather than Judy Dench who makes it so.
In childhood, I was brought up in the belief that Christians were basically good, and at the top of the pile were the nuns. People like me, who didn't go regularly to church, were just heathens.
In my teens, it was strangely the Pope's ruling on birth control, when we had an over populated and starving third world, which made me realise the hollowness of religion, and since then I have overcome my childhood indoctrination.
I know we've had all the issues of paedophile priests (but then why else would one agree to 'celibacy'?), but never did I realise just how evil those nuns were.
If you are still a Christian, prepare to have your faith tested.