“Philomena” a Heartbreaking Tragicomedy
Dec 8th
“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
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.
“Delivery Man” a Sweet and Touching Comedy
Nov 30th
“Sweet and Touching Comedy”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Delivery Man stars Vince Vaughn in a remake of a French-Canadian movie about a man with enough problems to begin with who finds himself in a situation that allows him to create even more problems.
Vaughn plays David Wozniak who works for his father’s business in New York City driving a truck and delivering meat.
However, that is not all that makes him a delivery man.
You see, 20 years ago David earned a lot of money by donating sperm as a regular visitor at a fertility clinic.
And yet David is a terrible investor, and he now owes $80,000 which he borrowed from the Mob.
When David’s girlfriend, Emma, tells him that she is pregnant, David takes the news well and tells her, “This could be the most beautiful thing that ever happened to me.”
However, Emma has doubts about whether David will make a good father, and she says that she will declare him “the father on probation.”
Meanwhile, David learns that the fertility clinic where he would “wrestle the dragon alone,” as he puts it, made a mistake and gave all the women in its clientele David’s sperm.
David had used the name “Starbuck” for all his donations, which amounted to 692 times, 533 children resulted, and 142 of those children have filed a lawsuit in order to learn Starbuck’s true identity.
David’s best friend, Brett, who has four children of his own, also happens to be a lawyer, and when David goes to Brett for help, Brett says that the dream of every lawyer is to argue a case of this significance.
Brett obtains the profiles of all the children involved in the lawsuit, turns them over to David in an envelope, but tells David not to open the envelope.
Well, you can guess what happens, can’t you? David opens up one profile, just one, and then he tracks down this son of his and is so impressed with who he is and what he turned out to be that David decides to convince Emma that he deserves to be her child’s father.
And opening up one profile to learn about one of his biological children is just like eating one potato chip. It can’t be done and doesn’t end there.
Delivery Man is a comedy that is sweet and touching and funny.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
