Posts tagged Judi Dench
“Philomena” a Heartbreaking Tragicomedy
Dec 8th
Posted by Dan Culberson in Hotshots Movie Reviews
“A Heartbreaking Tragicomedy”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Philomena stars Judi Dench and Steve Coogan in a heartbreaking movie based on a true story and the 2009 memoir, The Lost Child of Philomena Lee.
Back in the early 1950s, Philomena was a teenage girl in Ireland who met a young man at a fair and became pregnant after experiencing the joys of sex for the first time.
Because of the shame she had brought to her family, Philomena was sent to a convent to deliver her baby, a boy that she named Anthony, and then she was forced to work in the convent along with other young women in similar circumstances, who were all allowed to visit with their children only one hour a day.
When he was three years old, Anthony was sold by the nuns to an American couple who adopted him and took him back to the United States without Philomena being notified or allowed to say goodbye to him.
On what would have been Anthony’s fiftieth birthday, Philomena decides to try to find out what happened to Anthony and perhaps learn if he ever thought of his birth mother.
She meets a journalist, Martin Sixsmith, and although he claims that he doesn’t write human-interest stories, Philomena’s story intrigues him enough that his editor is willing to pay his expenses in order to track down Anthony and write a story about Philomena and Anthony.
Martin learns that Anthony had worked in Washington, DC, and because he has some contacts there, Martin is going to travel there and hope to learn more, which prompts Philomena to say, “I think I would like to go.”
And now we have a road trip with the odd couple of a little old unsophisticated Irish lady and a jaded young journalist who has been around the world before.
In spite of the circumstances of the story and the background, this is a warm comedy that produces both chuckles and laughs as Philomena and Martin discover the American identity of Anthony and the surprising facts about his life in the United States.
On the other hand, this is the kind of story for which the word “tragicomedy” was invented, and expect it to win many more awards than it already has.
Philomena proves once again that Dench is a terrific actress, sometimes using only her face to move us.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Philomena – Movie Trailer
Dec 2nd
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in Movie Trailers
Based on the 2009 investigative book by BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith, The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, PHILOMENA focuses on the efforts of Philomena Lee (Dench), mother to a boy conceived out of wedlock – something her Irish-Catholic community didn’t have the highest opinion of – and given away for adoption in the United States. In following church doctrine, she was forced to sign a contract that wouldn’t allow for any sort of inquiry into the son’s whereabouts. After starting a family years later in England and, for the most part, moving on with her life, Lee meets Sixsmith (Coogan), a BBC reporter with whom she decides to discover her long-lost son.
“Skyfall” Explains “Last Rat Standing”
Nov 17th
Posted by Dan Culberson in Hotshots Movie Reviews
“Last Rat Standing”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Skyfall is the 23rd “official” James Bond movie, which began 50 years ago with the 1962 Dr. No, and the third one starring Daniel Craig as British spy, Agent 007.
And of all the Bond films over the years, official and unofficial, both serious and spoof, this is definitely the most recent one.
Oh, all the traditional, key elements are there: Bond looks good, damn good, when he is dressed to kill; there is a memorable villain, played by Javier Bardem, but he has a back story that we have already seen before in the 1995 GoldenEye; there is another in a long line of so-called “Bond girls,” but her name isn’t as striking as previous ones; there are chases aplenty; there are gadgets for Bond, but some of them we have literally seen before; and finally there are familiar names, but they are played by new characters.
In other words, call me jaded or call me old, but I have pretty much seen it all before.
Except for the opening sequence, which features a motorcycle chase across the rooftops of buildings in Istanbul, a fight between Bond and another man atop a moving train, and then while Bond’s backup agent can shoot to save him, but doesn’t have a clear shot, the agent is ordered by M back in London, “Take the bloody shot!”
Unfortunately, the agent misses the villain, hits Bond, and Bond falls off the train into a river, over some falls, and he is missing from the story long enough for M, again played by Judi Dench, to write his obituary and have his government-paid apartment cleaned out of all Bond’s possessions.
But not to worry. Bond comes back, perhaps reluctantly, when things go bad in London for M, MI6, and the entire secret agency.
However, Bond has to prove that he is still able and fit for his license to kill, and he is back on the job.
He goes to Shanghai, he goes to Macao, and he encounters Silva, who has a personal grudge against M from days long past.
The story ends in Scotland, the meaning of the film’s title is revealed, and the movie ends with a comment about “last rat standing.”
Skyfall also ends with a promise that James Bond will return, but I say give it a rest.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”