A standing ovation welcomed yesterday the preview of Philomena, the brand new Stephen Frears' movie, in the
main competition.
It's a moving film, but told with intelligence, since Frears and his screenwriters Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope inject massive doses of English humor to cool the emotional temperature. It treats a very delicate matter, telling the true story of an Irish woman who was rejected by his parents as a pregnant teenager and
taken in by nuns. forced to a sort of slavery at the abbey her four-year-old boy will be given to an American family. 43 years later the woman tries to find the son with the help of a journalist, but the intransigence of the nouns makes it difficult.
Obviously, most of the value of this elegant anticlerical movie deals with the outstanding performance of Stephen Coogan and moreover of Judi Dench, perfect in giving his character dozens of subtle nuances.