Has anyone seen "Philomena" (movie)?

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I saw it with my daughter.It was a lovely bittersweet movie,however I did get my defensive back up re the harsh manner in which the Church,clergy was portrayed. Now,it could very well be that this portrayal is in fact accurate.Having said that,my daughter mentioned,that she thought it was a testimony to Philomea’s faith and love for the Church.That she was able to be so forgiving in spite of the sorrow she experienced,could be seen as a positive.
 
I saw Philomena a week or so ago. In my opinion it has a strong anti Catholic agenda.

Warning- if you haven’t seen the movie the following may contain spoilers

My issue with the movie is not that it showed a dark side of the Church in Ireland in the 1950’s. It is that there is no attempt at balance. Early on we are informed that this is a human interest story (certainly not a documentary) and that every human interest story has to have a good and a bad guy. It is agreed that the evil nuns would be the bad guys. So the more evil the nuns (and the Church) appear the better the story is.

Faith is mocked. Evil intent is assigned to the Church at every turn.

Take a look at this review from the NY Post. It is worth noting that the reviewer is an avowed atheist.

nypost.com/2013/11/21/philomena-another-hateful-and-boring-attack-on-catholics/

I’d be interested in hearing what others thought of the movie.
 
Jeanne_S said:
I saw it with my daughter.It was a lovely bittersweet movie,however I did get my defensive back up re the harsh manner in which the Church,clergy was portrayed. Now,it could very well be that this portrayal is in fact accurate.Having said that,my daughter mentioned,that she thought it was a testimony to Philomea’s faith and love for the Church.That she was able to be so forgiving in spite of the sorrow she experienced,could be seen as a positive.
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I haven’t seen it yet. I’ll wait for it to be on demand…

Here’s a review

catholicnews.com/data/movies/13mv130.htm
 
Elizium23 said:
The Vatican has vehemently denied this rumor, so please don’t continue to spread it.
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Whoops, looks like the real story is that Pope Francis met with the real Philomena and an actor from the film.
 
I hope to see this movie sometime. I saw the story on a news show on tv. I read both of the reviews included in the above posts. The interesting thing is that I thought the sentiments of both reviews would have been reversed.

There is no denying what went on in Ireland in the convents to the unwed pregnant girls that were brought or sent there by their families. Just see the difficult to watch, but based on fact movie “The Magdalene Sisters” if you are interested. The church apologized for it’s role in the brutal treatment of these girls. But I say this not to bash the Catholic Church. What happened was not the fault of the true Church, but of it’s followers, it’s clergy. They are the guilty ones, not The Catholic Church.
 
Irishmom2 said:
I hope to see this movie sometime. I saw the story on a news show on tv. I read both of the reviews included in the above posts. The interesting thing is that I thought the sentiments of both reviews would have been reversed.

There is no denying what went on in Ireland in the convents to the unwed pregnant girls that were brought or sent there by their families. Just see the difficult to watch, but based on fact movie “The Magdalene Sisters” if you are interested. The church apologized for it’s role in the brutal treatment of these girls. But I say this not to bash the Catholic Church. What happened was not the fault of the true Church, but of it’s followers, it’s clergy. They are the guilty ones, not The Catholic Church.
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Yes,I saw this movie The Magadelene Sisters,it was like watching a train wreck.So disturbing,yet I couldn’t look away:(
Not sure if this is the same convent featured in Philemona,
 
It was like a train wreck, you are correct. The convent in “The Magdalene Sisters” was just one of many all across Ireland. A kind of related story is told in another movie “Oranges and Sunshine” which tells the story of what happened to many children taken from Irish orphanages in the same time period, that were sent off to Australia. If you found “Magdalene” disturbing, you will find this story disturbing as well.
 
This raises an interesting point. Sometimes in the Church, really bad things happen. And sometimes people make a movie or write a book about these really bad things. If things like this really happened, simply retelling them cannot be considered “Anti-Catholic” in and of itself, no matter how difficult it may be for us to watch.
 
TRH1292 said:
This raises an interesting point. Sometimes in the Church, really bad things happen. And sometimes people make a movie or write a book about these really bad things. If things like this really happened, simply retelling them cannot be considered “Anti-Catholic” in and of itself, no matter how difficult it may be for us to watch.
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Exactly.
 
TRH1292 said:
This raises an interesting point. Sometimes in the Church, really bad things happen. And sometimes people make a movie or write a book about these really bad things. If things like this really happened, simply retelling them cannot be considered “Anti-Catholic” in and of itself, no matter how difficult it may be for us to watch.
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True, but I see a trend that is hard to deny, i.e., anti-Christian sentiment in a lot of movies!
 
Irishmom2 said:
It was like a train wreck, you are correct. The convent in “The Magdalene Sisters” was just one of many all across Ireland. A kind of related story is told in another movie “Oranges and Sunshine” which tells the story of what happened to many children taken from Irish orphanages in the same time period, that were sent off to Australia. If you found “Magdalene” disturbing, you will find this story disturbing as well.
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The convent in The Magdalene Sisters, in my understanding, wasn’t actually one convent. The writer takes the stories of several different women from different times and places and puts them all together as though they happened simultaneously in one place. Thus, the viewer is left with the impression that the convent depicted in the movie is a typical one and that all Magdalene Laundries were filled with concentrated horrors like the one in the movie.

I don’t doubt that abuses happened, and I have much sympathy for those women. But my guess is that the abuses were not quite as horrific as is shown in the movie. I hope not, anyway.
 
Ok! So we have the real stories on all the bad Catholics, nuns, priests, and etc., but can’t we also have some once in awhile about the wonderful ones.

It is always the negatives, and it gets old, and I don’t bother to watch.
 
Thanks for all the replies. After reading these posts and watching a trailer I think I’ll give the movie a pass. I read one review that rebuked the Church’s “antiquated” practice of taking babies away from their unwed mothers, as if it was happening now instead of 50 years ago. It wasn’t just the Church, all of society shunned unwed mothers at that time.
 
Chiming in late, but I just recently saw the movie and I liked it. Unlike others, I found it very gentle, loving, and supportive of the faith. I’m aware that some events of the movie play fast and loose with the truth, but I think if you go in with the idea that it is a movie, rather than a documentary, and that it isn’t intended to represent some sort of blanket Catholic experience, you will be fine.

Although the movie is critical of the treatment of unwed mothers, it’s not anti-religious. Philomena is portrayed as full of faith, and she is held up against the reporter’s doubts and cynicism. It’s a fantastic movie about forgiveness and holding on to faith.

Bad things happen in the church. The Magdalene Laundries, the sex abuse scandals, etc. etc. I think a movie, where the protagonist rises above human failings, and holds tight to her faith, has great appeal. So often, we tell people not to get hung up on petty hurts that keep us away from church, and to focus on what’s important. Here, I think that’s exactly what Philomena does. From my perspective, this movie isn’t anti-Catholic at all.
 
alexandratm said:
Chiming in late, but I just recently saw the movie and I liked it. Unlike others, I found it very gentle, loving, and supportive of the faith. I’m aware that some events of the movie play fast and loose with the truth, but I think if you go in with the idea that it is a movie, rather than a documentary, and that it isn’t intended to represent some sort of blanket Catholic experience, you will be fine.

Although the movie is critical of the treatment of unwed mothers, it’s not anti-religious. Philomena is portrayed as full of faith, and she is held up against the reporter’s doubts and cynicism. It’s a fantastic movie about forgiveness and holding on to faith.

Bad things happen in the church. The Magdalene Laundries, the sex abuse scandals, etc. etc. I think a movie, where the protagonist rises above human failings, and holds tight to her faith, has great appeal. So often, we tell people not to get hung up on petty hurts that keep us away from church, and to focus on what’s important. Here, I think that’s exactly what Philomena does. From my perspective, this movie isn’t anti-Catholic at all.
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An interesting perspective. I agree we shouldn’t bury our heads in the sand regarding the scandals in the Church, but I feel very uncomfortable and defensive when I see her painted unmitigated black in movies or books. You’re saying this movie doesn’t do this?
 
seagal said:
Has anyone seen the movie Philomena? I’m just wondering how badly the Catholic church comes off in it.
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I’ve seen it with my girlfriend. I would not recommend the movie, due to its strong anti-Catholic themes. It brought my girlfriend to tears, because it attacked the Church so much.
 
I just returned from seeing this film. Judi Dench gave a brilliant, sensitive performance. yet, I was put off by the strong anti-Catholic, ant-nun tone. I don’t deny that these kinds of things happened , and, perhaps, still do. However, it seems that it remains “fashionable” to bash all things Catholic. When I try to explain (not necessarily justify) the Church to friends, they don’t want to listen. Often they bring up fairly irrelevant things like the Crusades, the Inquisition, etc. I try to remind myself that Jesus endured scorn and humiliation much worse than what I do, but it gets disheartening at times.
 
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