‘Philomena’

As shown in the January 8, 2013 edition of the 'Monroe County Reporter':

The Christian church has wrestled in its history whether Mary Magdalene was indeed the unnamed repentant sinner who anoints Jesus' feet in the biblical story (Luke 7:36-50).  The church in the Middle Ages believed Mary Magdalene was this redeemed prostitute.  This interpretation influenced the name of Irish asylums for sexually promiscuous women in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, called "Magdalene laundries."  These laundries served as rehabilitation facilities for "fallen women" considered to be a shame to society because of their sexual activity or safeguarded from society because of their looks.  These asylums were facilitated among Roman Catholics and Protestants alike and were operated in Australia, Europe, and North America.

One such Magdalene laundry is the focus of film "Philomena."  In this film based upon a true story, a mother breaks a 50-year silence revealing to her daughter she longs to meet her son Anthony, whom she was forced to give up for adoption by an Irish convent during the 1950's.

Philomena Lee is the mother wonderfully portrayed by Judi Dench ("Chocolat", "Notes on a Scandal").  Dench embodies this woman who has come to terms with the guilt and shame she has endured and concealed throughout her life.  As a pregnant teenager Philomena was sent to a convent laundry to suffer "the penance of pain" for laying with a young man out of wedlock, and could only be with her son for an hour a day.  The young Philomena, played by actress Sophie Kennedy Clark, painfully watches her three-year-old son be taken away by a family who paid 1,000 pounds to the convent (which was a lot of money).

The film's screenplay is adapted by comic Steve Coogan based upon the non-fiction novel "The Lost Child of Philomena Lee" by Martin Sixsmith.  Coogan stars in this film alongside Dench portraying the role of Martin Sixsmith, whose dynamic with Philomena is a beautiful story within the story.  The screenplay involves Sixsmith, a burnt-out Roman Catholic angry at God who seeks to write a human-interest story about Philomena, all the while perplexed and in awe of her faith.

"Philomena" is a delightful and careful rendering of what it means to be merciful.  In perspective with all the guilt, shame and anger among the characters in the film, "Philomena" is a tale of the paradox and power of forgiveness.  Like the lesson from the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18:21-35, the capacity to forgive is informed by the capacity at which we are forgiven.  It is a grave tragedy when the people of God fail to demonstrate the mercy their Heavenly Father conveys to them, yet this juxtaposes the sovereignty of Christ's saving faith all the more!  The elusive realm of God's reign is constantly shattering our conventions of who embodies His mercy.  The comic approach to this film makes "Philomena" a movie not to rile anger in its audience towards the Church per se, but rather its purpose is to shed light of this mother's struggle for justice and reconciliation shared by many others.  Like Mary Magdelene and Mary the Mother of Jesus, may we stumble upon God's empty deathbed.