Philomena, The Movie

Philomena and Steve Coogan who wrote and produced the
film. Bless them both.

I knew it would be hard but I had no idea what I was in for watching one of the world's greatest actresses of all time play Philomena.

In the film, the search for a "lost" (stolen) son of an unmarried woman becomes the search for proof that he remembered her. So her questions to everyone were always about whether or not he asked about Ireland, their home and native land. Later, we learn her lost son is gay and accomplished. Like me. And he gets HIV, again like me, but he dies. And Philomena and her son and my mother and I all returned to our Catholic orphanages begging for reunion and were refused by the Church.

When Philomena discovers that his partner stood up to her son's adoptive family in order to have her son buried in Ireland where he wanted to be, I was sobbing out loud and Leon came to comfort me.

When I found my birth mother and she heard me speak French, she could not talk for 5 minutes she was so overcome with emotion. It proved I remembered her and her influence and here was that message again in this film.

Philomena's story is my story, told from the other side. The scar is thicker.