Yes, No, Maybe So: "Philomena"
Sunday, August 11, 2013 at 6:00PM After a quiet six or seven months on the Best Actress front we have two real contenders (Cate Blanchett & Brie Larson) and in the fall and winter the usual glut of heavy hitters. We've already seen trailers for Meryl's 4th Oscar plea, Emma's comeback and Sandra's tease. And now... Dame Judi Dench as Philomena, a woman whose son was given up for adoption when she was a young girl fifty years earlier.
I did not abandon my child."
My quick reaction to the trailer...
YES - Dench doesn't carry films as often as we'd like so we're there. The tears will undoubtedly flow given that people struggling to reconcile their lives and lost children demand kleenex. Philomena's matter-of-fact loopiness (the portion control joke, her "Ann Boleyn" comment) might provide good laughs.
NO - The trailer suggests that we are as interested in Steve Coogan's career trouble journey as in her life. This would not be the case.
MAYBE SO - The light comic tone suggests a different film than we were expecting given the overall concept. Perhaps this is another Mrs Henderson Presents (which barely challenges Dench) rather than a Her Majesty Mrs Brown in terms of depth and potency. It seems unlikely, at least in this tiny sample, to impress like her tour de force in Notes on a Scandal.
THE TRAILER
Are you a Yes, No, Maybe So? And which Judi Dench film does the trailer most remind you of?
Reader Comments (27)
Trailer does seem light but that could be misleading,this is 1 of the last times to reward Dench esp in Lead.
There are too many of Harvey's Girls in this year's competition in both supporting and lead actress. One of them has to be a flop.
I do like Steve Coogan though, but only in the context of him working with Michael Winterbottom and him being Alan Partridge.
Dench is one of those actresses I quite admire and truly enjoy seeing on screen, and yet I can't help but feel that I've never really seen her give a great performance on screen, and certainly not a landmark one at that. I think she's very, very good in Notes on a Scandal if perhaps a bit too calculated, even for that character, and I wasn't much impressed with that much-ballyhooed Mrs. Brown performance when I saw it a few weeks ago. Hopefully, Philomena will be the Definitive Dench performance I've been waiting for?
I agree with the "too many Harvey girls" comment
I'm saying he gets two of them (not more) in the Leading Actress category.
Meryl Streep is guaranteed, and it's pointless to start explaining "why".
But who will number 2 be? Dench or Kidman?
Marion won't be joining the club, AGAIN, and even box office star Julia Roberts will not have enough power to join the club, considering the fact that the non-Harvey competition is way way too strong (Blanchett, Thompson, Bullock, Winslet) + probably Watts (since Diana sounds too good to fail at the Oscars) & Adams (if she gives us a Faye Dunaway "Network" type of thing = long overdue, sort of lead, in a potentially very good film).
I'm a YES.
I love Judi, and I think she can win the Oscar for this, if Frears can do it for Mirren, he can do it for Dench. This looks a perfect role for Judi, she'll be perfect in it. There's goodwill for her after Skyfall and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, they love her anyway, nominating her six times in nine years and as awful as it sounds this could be their last chance, this could be Judi's last great role, although I certainly hope not.
PS. When do we think Judi has come closest to winning Best Actress? Mrs Brown or Notes On A Scandal? Where do we think she came in either of those races? I only got into the Oscars around 2008, so wasn't around, or interested, to know.
Nathaniel, remember how you predicted Barbra Streisand in Best Actress race last year? I hope the same fate does not happen to Judi Dench.
Hard to top Dench in "Notes on a Scandal." Hard to go lower than Dench in "Mrs. Henderson Presents."
I agree with Matthew Eng and he said it perfectly...
Keegan -- she was the frontrunner for Mrs Brown until As Good As It Gets took over in the last lap ... so yeah, she was in the runner up position that year. And probably lost by not all that much. But i doubt any actress came close to Mirren in 2006. I imagine all the best actress nominees were tied for 5th (haha). Mirren was such a frontrunner she just steamrolled. I personally have never understood it since her performance was the weakest of the 5 that time but what can you do?
For a couple of months now, this performance/film has had the feel of Katherine Hepburn/ON GOLDEN POND, Geraldine Page/THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL and Jessica Tandy/DRIVING MISS DAISY for me, and the trailer now reinforces the mood of lightness and "old woman reflecting on life decisions" of those three. If I had to predict the best Actress Oscar winner right at this moment, I'd go for Dench. (I'm sure Weinstein would also play up the "she's going blind, this could be her last chance for a Best Actress Oscar" perspective as well.)
I'm sort of interested in this. The charisma and likeability of Coogan and Dench is more a draw than the look of the film or the sense I'm getting of its story at this point but it may surprise and have a Beginners sense of delicacy to the film. Hopefully it avoids being Mrs Henderson Presents-levels of twee.
Oscars wise, Dench is in a pretty good position for a nomination unless this is Sharknado levels of ham. She's coming off a respectable year in the eyes of the industry (Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - box office success, Skyfall - box office and critical success) and she's in a position to get a career retrospective type nod for this, especially in light of the news that she might be on the verge of retiring due to her failing eyesight (I hope Harvey doesn't milk this narrative later on the year, but that seems beyond him).
Matthew: I remember being impressed with her Lady Macbeth in high school, the one with Ian McKellen. It wasn't a movie though, just a filmed version of a stage play.
I'm a yes. I've never been bored by a Dench performance, even the light ones. The story is very topical, the script is a bit Brit TV but Brit TV is damn good when it wants to be (The Queen was very Brit TV).
And for a Great Dench perf, go back to Room with a View. "I always carry a Macintosh square. One never knows when one will have to sit on damp ground or cold marble."
Harvey's probably waiting to see how it goes down at Venice and TIFF with critics and at the UK box office before deciding whether to schedule it this year for awards or hold it for a QUARTET-style early 2014 release (maybe with a brief qualifying run).
Seeing this trailer is weird after reading the book. The book is called 'The Lost Child of Philomena Lee' and is all about the son's life; Philomena only appears at the beginning (as a young woman) and at the end (as an older woman). So they've totally reversed the focus. Hopefully the son's life, which goes to some intriguing (and dark) places, is not reduced to a postscript in the movie.
Steve G: I have read the book, too, and totally agree with you. What's more, it seems that the movie is going to be a companion piece to the novel rather than an adaptation proper.
Harvey is a bit like a wealthy drunk in Vegas. He bought this film and Grace of Monaco based on some hastily put together footage (maybe some entire scenes for Philomena, but Grace of Monaco is really a crapshoot at the table - he put down at least $5 million plus guaranteed a national release, which is a very expensive and risky bet for a Nicole Kidman movie in 2013).
I'm a Yes because it's Judi f**king Dench but the trailer seemed iffy to me.
By the way, Victoria would have love you calling her Her Imperial Majesty but the title of the movie was Mrs Brown ;)
You can't win an Oscar for a movie like this, can you? It is not a comedy and not a drama/biopic. You don't win an Oscar for a light dramedy, specially facing such a fierce competition.
Rubbish -Lawrence,Hunt,Bullock,Streep even Glenda Jackson in 73.
Can someone get a DDL/Judi Dench "I did not/I've abandon/ed my child!" mashup going?
I'm a definite YES for Judi...in anything she does.
However, Steve Coogan really bugs me (annoying to the max), which almost tugs me into the MAYBE SO category.
Thankfully love for Dench overpowers distaste for Coogan.
I say yes. I think most of Judi's Oscar noms came from Weinstein movies, so there's quite the chance she will happen again.
I don't buy that getting in for Lead Actress. It seems like it's more "fluffy" than the weightier stuff they like.
My concept of the Top 10 in Lead Actress (right now):
1. Meryl Streep, August: Osage County
2. Sandra Bullock, Gravity
3. Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
4. Greta Gerwig, Frances Ha (She's young and she HASN'T WON, which should give her a much stronger leg up in this category dedicated to handing wins to the "shiny new toys")
5. Julie Delpy, Before Midnight (It wasn't a massive hit, but you just know Oscar isn't going to be DISinterested, especially since that Adapted Screenplay nom last time probably raised the eyebrows of a lot of the actors branch)
6. Brie Larson, Short Term 12 (It's sort of take on that inspirational teacher thing, so the Academy might want to have both genders cotton on for this kind of thing)
7. Kate Winslet, Labor Day (I'm a bit sceptical about this. She's never REALLY been a B/O draw, and you kind of need to be to come back after a hard fought win like hers.)
8. Shailene Woodley, The Spectacular Now (I get it. Artist's want to make movies about high school while simultaneously not wanting to remember high school, thus they don't watch movies about it TO vote on. But, really, after nearly thirty years of people mining those depths, you'd think the Academy would start warming to the concept.)
9. Judi Dench, Philomena (She was 6 before seeing this trailer, but it looks to, maybe, skew a bit fluffy for their sensibilities, even if it is "prestigious" and they might be falling out of love with Dench.)
10. Nicole Kidman, Grace of Monaco. (The movie's not supposed to be that good, but she managed a nom for Rabbit Hole, a movie that was more low key and subtle for a majority of it's run time (obvious clip moment notwithstanding), so the prestige factor means she's always decently high in the race if it's an even semi-respectable product.)
Yes...
Mark: I'll give you Lawrence (2012 was a MUCH stronger year performance AND film wise than a win for a performance like that typically happens in (Amour, Beasts, Zero Dark Thirty all would have been worthier winners, both on performance AND film level), but Bullock had only Carey Mulligan's richly vocalized but stiffly physicalized An Education work as serious win competition (Sidibe was good, but I don't buy the Academy would have let a huge stunt like that win lead), Hunt had "not as perfect but in a better movie" on her side, The Iron Lady sounds less a "light fluffy dramedy" and more "histrionics with moments of humour" kind of thing (The Help, personally, is toned closer to Philomena) and as for Glenda Jackson in 1973? When your big competition is Ellen Burstyn in an, often, dully sympathetic mother role, I don't call that a tight field. (The Exorcist IS a horrifying film, but it's not the best performed piece.) I'd say this year looks stronger in this category.
Gold derby reports that Streep is switching to supporting, rather than lead.
If they try to pass off Meryl's role as a supporting one, then I will be very annoyed and confused. Almost as silly as when they were trying to pull off that trick of placing Kate Winslet in "The Reader" as supporting actress leading up the Oscars.