DVD review: Philomena (M)

Judi Dench and Steve Coogan try find Philomena's son.

Philomena (Dame Judi Dench) had an amazing story to share and we are lucky enough to go along for the ride.

Fifty years after the birth of her long-lost son, Philomena decides it is time she let her tightly-held secret out of the bag.

With the help of her daughter, she asks world-weary political journalist Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) to help her out.

Without a job, Sixsmith reluctantly starts digging around on Philomena's behalf.

The more he digs, the more he becomes interested in her story.

Sent to a convent because she had become pregnant out of wedlock, Philomena was kept a virtual working slave while her son was readied to be sold to willing parents. Watching her son being taken away all but broke Philomena.

When she learns her son was taken to the United States she wants to try to find him just to see if he remembers her or anything about his Irish ancestry.

The doors keep closing and it is only the dogged journalistic skills of Sixsmith that manages to uncover the truth.

While Philomena learns more than she cared to know, she at last has answers to her many questions.

It is difficult not to have the upmost sympathy for Philomena's plight.

Based on a true story, her treatment by the convent nuns was little short of barbaric and her determination to see it through is inspirational.

Craig Nicholson