Starring: Steve Coogan, Judi Dench, Anna Maxwell Martin, Mare Winningham
Director: Stephen Frears
Running Time: 98 mins
Certificate: 12A
Release Date: November 1st 2013

Peter Mullan’s 2002 film The Magdalene Sisters was a howl of outrage at the Catholic Church in Ireland; a coruscating, raw drama about the abuse of young girls basically held prisoner by sadistic nuns after falling pregnant.

Stephen Freers’ Philomena has basically the same theme but is, by comparison, a gentle, warm story, which seems too timid to unveil the same power as Mullan’s film. Dench and Coogan have rightly garnered strong reviews for their performances, but the film’s script seems too scared of going for the emotional knockout punch, despite the real power of the story. [Read more…]