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English: Magdalen Laundry in England, early 20th century. Scanned by Eloquence* from Finnegan, F.: Do Penance or Perish. A Study of Magdalen Asylums in Ireland. Congrave Press, Ireland, Piltown, Co. Kilkenny (2001). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With 12 Years A Slave and The Butler  sounding the alarm and need for civil rights in America, there was another less-talked about atrocity taking place in Ireland.   Across the sea in a convent in the town of Roscrea, Catholic nuns were running a babies-for-sale business.

If you were an unmarried and pregnant young girl in Ireland in the early 1950’s, you would surely be ostracized by your family and sent away to hide the shame you brought down on the family.  The pregnancy was the result of a mortal sin, so it was only natural for the family to turn to the Church for guidance and counsel.  

Philomena was sent away to the Roscrea Abbey to live and work until the baby was born.  The girls were treated as sinners, as evidenced by the denial of any painkillers during a painful breech birth delivery.  The girls signed away their rights to the baby and were indentured for years to repay the nuns for taking them in.  It is the Magdalene laundries all over again.  Childless Catholic American couples bought the babies and took them away to the United States.  That’s the back story and the basis for Philomena’s 50 year search for her long lost son, Anthony.

The film is about that search.  It was adapted from the book, The Lost Child of Philomena  Lee written by Martin Sixsmith.  Philomena hooks up with a fallen-from-grace journalist and together they set out to find Anthony who was renamed Michael and adopted by a Dr. Hess and his wife.  It’s through Martin’s former  Washington DC connections that facts are uncovered, names and whereabouts.  The ensuing road trip is hysterical at times.  Dame Judi Dench gives us an amazingly hilarious interpretive performance of woman whose mind is as Martin describes to his boss, “I’ve finally seen firsthand what a lifetime’s diet of Reader’s Digest, the Daily Mail and romantic fiction can do to a person’s brain.”  Their odd couple odyssey has some of the movie’s best dialogue.     As they travel across the big pond and back, Philomena’s unshakable faith and Martin’s (a fallen Catholic) disdain for religion clash.  As Lee becomes more serene, more accepting of the situation and all the more forgiving, Martin boils with rage at the injustice, the hypocrisy, the lies and most of all the institutional piety.

To adapt the book to the big screen and to introduce to Michael, the film relied on home movie flashbacks, which was a very effective way to let the audience see Anthony (Michael) grow up, while keeping the focus on Philomena.  There has been a decidedly different reaction to the movie.  Some see it as another attack on the Catholic Church and others as a heart-wrenching love story of a mother.  

I enjoyed the movie even though I had to endure the expected criticism of organized religion by my atheist  husband.  Being Catholic is not an advantage to viewing the movie, but there are moments that we appreciate all the more for being so.

Steve Coogan is truly wonderful as Martin Sixsmith.  Mr. Coogan bought the rights to the book before he even read it and he co-wrote the screen play.  

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• Philomena: the real-life story behind the film