Philomena
My wife and I have seen four of the Oscar best-picture
nominees, Philomena, Twelve Years a
Slave, Nebraska and American Hustle. Of these, Philomena
is clearly the best picture.
Why? Well, of course,
it stars Judy Dench. Who’s better? And her co-star, Steven Coogan is first rate
as well. Not only that, but, along with
Jeff Pope, he wrote the screenplay.
And it is the screenplay more than the acting that makes
this movie great. The story, which is a true story, has deep significance,
eternal significance one might even say.
Based on the book Philomena by
Martin Sixsmith (Sixsmith, played by Coogan, is the journalist who help
Philomena unravel the mystery of her son’s life), the movie tells the story of
an Irish woman who got pregnant out of marriage as a young girl, gave up her child
to the nuns, watched helplessly as her child was spirited away while she worked
in the convent’s laundry, and then as an older woman set about to find her
child.
When Philomena and Sixsmith seek information about her son, the
nuns deny them access to all records and conversations and lie to them again
and again.
The story reaches its climax when Philomena realizes that
her son had been trying to find her for years, that he had been to the convent
in search of her, and that his body is, in fact, interred on the convent burial
grounds. (He had died of AIDS in his
forties.)
At this point, Sixsmith is ready to tear the nuns limb from
limb for their cruelty and perfidy. But
Philomena says simply, “I forgive you.”
She does it because she believes in a God who is forgiving. She says to her journalist friend Sixsmith, “If
I don’t forgive, I will be like you. That
must be terribly exhausting.”
And so we have the conflict between doing justice, that is,
calling attention to the nuns’ hateful and misguided behavior toward Philomena
and many other young girls, and forgiving them. And perhaps Philomena gets both, for she gives Sixsmith permission to tell the story--which is a sort of justice.
People react differently to movies. Even in our group which attended the movie,
some felt she forgive too easily and some did not. But we all, at the same time, wanted
justice. Justice and forgiveness. It’s the tension between these two that makes
for great religious art again and again.
Like all rich stories this film is about other things besides the justice/forgiveness conflict, things like sexuality, homosexuality, innocence and experience. Philomena is a film that says significant things. So do Nebraska and Twelve Years a Slave, but of the three, in spite of (or maybe because of) its age-old theme, Philomena seemed the freshest and most engaging.
Final Note: Anyone reading this in the Sioux Center area can encounter this same tension if they go to see the Dordt College Theatre’s production of Doubt on February 27, 28, and March 1.
Write on David! Right on Dave! I'm glad you got a class to teach and keep up the good fight for truth-as-close-as-Christian persons-can-get-it vs delusion, and I'm glad you waked up the crowd and got spoken responses. Especially angry responses -- those guys will remember being in your presence for a long, long time. Wonderbar!
ReplyDeleteSam (Sang Myung) Lee is a Calvin seminary student friend for whom I am vocational mentor twice a month. We saw each other this morning. Sam came to CTS two years ago after four years at Dordt after growing up in the Philippines, his parents being missionaries there. We talked this morning in a sunny room with a northeast wall of glass. Sam is extraordinary for faith, theological depth, the way in which he navigates cultures near-globally, for his work as a kind of shepherd-counselor for seven Calvin students, for looking like he's sixteen, for being fun to be around. He remembers you in your last year of fulltime Dordt and his first, I believe, and I wish for you and the whole Dordt establishment to be reminded of Sang Myung (Sam) as a Dordt student (I believe of yours) who "got it". He's got Kingdom/Kuyper down without triumphalistic excesses. He has ongoing work going (at Dordt with Dordt friends and Jay Shin, last summer in the Philippines and Korean) on inter-generational faith sharing/teaching in various organized settings with fifth-sixth grade Asian kids. Sam will be a terrific pastor. I suspect there are many more. You and Dordt have done a lot of really good work. A Christian life is a heck of a legacy.
I'll have to get back later with some stories, responses about the reality of global warming vs denying it, and caring about our kids learning values despite the immense flak and static of consumerist advertising war against our kids/grandkids getting media-proof values and vision.
Be well. I heard the voice of a turtle dove in this land of ice, and there is a rumor that they are playing baseball in more southern reaches of our country.
John Rozeboom
John: Thanks for reading the blog--one reader like you is enough incentive to keep on sending these missives out into the atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteWe will be in GR in April for the Festival of Faith and Writing (Luke is a speaker) and again in May for the 50th reunion of Calvin's class of '64. Hope to see you and Linda on both occasions.
Dave