Brilliant played and absolutely fantastic written.

Philomena The exaggeration of one's affection and the keen sense of hunger towards the personality is projected with utter beauty and through little maniacal things that actually sweetens it up. Steven Coogan and Jeff Pope's adaptation from Martin Sixsmith's book may be short and edited nicely but isn't smart or effective as the writers think. If the script is a let down, then Stephen Frears saves it brilliantly through its amazing execution skills that doesn't fail to impress the audience. Judi Dench stands alone on performance in here as she is the core strength and the highlight of the feature despite of Steve Coogan's decent act. Philomena is surely an important feature that draws out essential questions and emotions on screen but on terms of drama; that is its genre, it fails to create the anticipated impact.

The search for a lost child is always filled with mystery, but in the case of Judi Dench as the title character, she seems to see her son's life happening long after they were separated. Taken to an Irish convent where mostly cruel nuns took in unwed mothers, sold the babies to wealthy Americans and made them work off the "hospitality" through hard labor. With the help of a BBC reporter, Dench travels to Washington DC where the truth is revealed, and all is not happy once she finds out.While the novel tells the story mostly through the son's eyes, this is told through Philomena's, obviously to focus on the wonderful Dench. It's not a story of the evils of the church, but one woman's determination to reach out to her greatest love, an adorable little boy who went far in life, but not without a price.The way this story is told in other hands would be a lifetime movie, but with Dench, it is a personal story, a character study, a tale of redemption and finality, and obviously, a lesson in what great acting is all about. Dench is pretty much the whole film, glowing even under the most tragic of circumstances. One should not see the negativity about the church here, just one aspect of a huge organization that has a history of both good and evil.

"Philomena" could be the typical movie that goes for the easy tear and that is cheesy and shallow (kind of like the books the main character seems to read on trips).But Stephen Frears does an amazing job in bringing to life and making us care and worry about Philomena's plight to find the son that was stolen from her. He takes a true and sad story charges it with a punch that will hit most of its viewers really hard.The story is simple. Philomena decides to tell that she had a son, and that she would like to find him. Her daughter meets fallen from grace journalist Martin Sixsmith, who becomes interested in the story. And Philomena and Martin go on a search that will bring a dark truth to light.Frears does a great job on not making this story a show against the Catholic church. He and Coogan and Pope adapting Sixmith's story, do a great job in making this the story of Philomena, of a woman who was robed of her son, and with this, of a part of herself. And Judi Dench is more than amazing as the main character. She is subtle, touching and says so much without having to make a speech or say something deep that even for her high standards, is a revelation. Her Philomena is a woman full of flaws that some people, when meeting, would look from over their shoulders, but then learn to respect her views and her believes. Coogan, as the posh Sixmith, does a great job (even if once or twice it seems he is going into comedic mode) too of showing the "educated" man that can't understand some of Philomena's decisions but that ends caring more about her than about the story. As said, this could be a little bit cheesy but Frears, the actors and the script don't let it become so.This is a great movie, touching, subtle and powerful. Totally worth checking out.