DATE REVIEWED: 8/31/25
TITLE: Philomena (Lee)
BOX OFFICE RATED: PG-13 (This is not suitable for GOD’s children.)
PRODUCTION YEAR: 2013 The Weinstein Company / Anchor Bay Entertainment / Starz Media / BBC Films / Yucaipa Films / Pathé / BFI / Canal+ / Cine+ / Baby Cow Productions / Magnolia Mae Productions / 20thCentury Fox
RATING [1 LEAST FAVORITE TO 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]: 1
REASON: This movie is supposedly based on a true story and the book, “The Lost Child of Philomena Lee.” It takes place in the UK and began with unemployed Martin Sixsmith going to his doctor after he got fired from his position as a BBC news reporter for saying something he supposedly didn’t say. He had an ongoing spat with Stephen Byers at Whitehall. Martin considered writing a Russian book in his free time since he was the BBC man in Russia and Washington, D.C. The doctor advised against it and suggested that Martin take up running. Martin told the Sunday Times that the government went back on their word and went against him instead of supporting him, and thus he was out of a job. Martin and his wife, Kate, attended a Catholic church service led by Father Tierny but Martin walked out. Kate met up with him after the service was finished, and Martin declared that he didn’t believe in God anyway. An elderly female, Philomena Lee, went to a Catholic church after everyone left. She told the priest that she had a titanium implant in her hip and she came to light a candle for someone she knew from her past titanium implant in her hip. Philomena had flashbacks of when she looked to be an underage teen in Ireland and had met a young man at a carnival and they were soon made out behind a tent and had sex. Months later, Philomena found herself pregnant at an orphanage run by nuns because her dad disowned her. She confessed to the nuns that she took her knickers off, but she had no idea how she got pregnant because her mom had died ten years before. The sisters of the church scolded Philomena and told her not to blame them for her own indecency. The Catholic nuns tried to deliver the baby, but it was breeched and the younger kids in the orphanage were terrified by Philomena’s screams. Reverend Mother Barbara refused to call a doctor and believed that the pain was Philomena’s punishment for her sins. Philomena (looked like a young teen) finally birthed a baby boy named Anthony and Mother Barbara held him. Back in real time, elder Philomena returned home, where her young adult daughter, Jane, lived with her. After almost two decades of silence, Philomena decided to show Jane a picture of the baby that she birthed 50 years before because it was his birthday. Meanwhile, Martin met news editor Sally Mitchell at a house party, and she specialized in human sob stories and told Martin to tell her if he had any stories. Jane worked as a waitress at the party and overheard that Martin was a writer looking for work. She asked him if he would do a story about a woman who had a baby when she was a teen but the nuns took the boy away from her. Martin explained that it was one of those human-interest stories featuring weak and ignorant people that just filled in newspapers and were read by the same kind of people. He wanted no part of it, but he later talked to Kate about doing a human-interest story because she was tired of him moping around the house and being depressed. Soon after, Martin tracked Jane down and met up with Philomena and Jane at Philomena’s favorite salad bar. Philomena told Martin that Jane went to university, and Martin said he went to Oxford. He had been married to Kate for 20 years and they lived in Knightsbridge, an expensive district in London. Philomena professed that she loved the lost child and she told Martin her story that her dad told everyone she was dead and left her with the Catholic nuns when he discovered she was pregnant since she was an embarrassment to the family. Philomena never heard from her Lee family after that, and she was required to stay at the orphanage and do slave labor for four years after she had the baby to repay the sisters. The females were forced to stay there and work unless they could pay the nuns 100 pounds, otherwise they were in that trap Catholic house. Philomena worked in the laundry seven days a week for all four years inside the convent beside her best friend was Kathleen. A few other teen girls working there were in the same boat as Philomena. The teen females were only allowed to see the toddler children for one hour a day. Anthony and Kathleen’s daughter, Mary, were playmates. Sister Annunciata, who saved Anthony’s life during birth, stole a picture of Anthony from the Reverend Mother and gave it to Philomena to keep. Soon after, a big car arrived and the girls knew that one of the children would be adopted out. Kathleen was beside herself because she knew Mary would be taken, and Philomena watched from her shared bedroom window as a wealthy couple picked up Mary. Philomena went to choir practice, but she was called away by another girl who told her that Anthony was also being adopted. Philomena ran out of choir and went to her window to watch the couple leave with Anthony and Mary, and she ran to the gate and screamed Anthony’s name as the gray car drove away. She sobbed hysterically as Sister Hildegarde watched on and told Philomena to get back inside the abbey. Jane called the nuns evil for not giving Philomena painkillers during the breech birth, and Martin knew that describing the Catholic nuns like that would sell more copies of the story. As the years went by and Philomena left the Catholic sister house, Philomena visited the convent repeatedly to inquire about the lost boy, but the nuns wouldn’t help her track down Anthony so Martin planned to try his luck. Jane and Philomena invited Martin to go out of town with them to the Roscrea nunnery, but Martin didn’t want to drive because he preferred to fly. Martin rented a BMW and met up with them in Ireland, but Jane stayed behind while Martin and Philomena Lee drove to Roscrea. Philomena put a St. Christopher necklace on the rearview mirror for luck, and Martin believed that saint was like Mickey Mouse and revealed that he used to be an altar boy. They arrived at the remote and wooded Roscrea Abbey Sisters of the Sacred Heart, and Philomena told Martin that she was lucky because most of the teens and babies their didn’t survive childbirth. Philomena dismissed herself to the bathroom, but she instead revisited the old places she remembered. She went to the gate and had a flashback of the day that Anthony was taken away, and she could see the car’s license plate GHI 837. Martin noticed a picture on the wall of what he thought was celebrity Jayne Mansfield, but Sister Claire corrected him that it was Jane Russell (twin look alike or staged death). Martin asked which one of them died in a car crash, and Claire explained that it was Jayne Mansfield. Martin questioned why the autographed photo of Jane was on the wall but received no reply. Philomena told sister Claire that she had called Hildegarde a while ago but she was too sick for Philomena to visit. Claire explained that sister Hildegarde was still alive but wasn’t well, and most of the records were destroyed in the big fire therefore they had no news of Anthony. Philomena said that she still went to mass and she just wanted to know if Anthony was okay, and Martin spied Hildegard in another room hobbling with her cane. Martin stated that he used to be a Roman Catholic and asked if he could speak to the older nuns who might have memory of where Anthony might have gone. Claire refused and asked Martin to leave because it wasn’t his place to pry and she wanted to console Philomena alone. Martin tried to speak to sister Hildegarde in her private quarters, but he was stopped by one of the sisters who informed him that he wasn’t allowed in that part of the building. Martin went outside to the cemetery and saw the gravestones of multiple young teen girls and babies that were buried there after dying in childbirth, such as 14-year-old Aisling Devlin. When Martin returned to the car, Philomena was waiting for him with an envelope from Claire. Philomena told Martin that Claire advised her to be careful of the reporter because she knew nothing about him and he was trying to manipulate her to get a story. Martin opened the envelope and inside was a binding legal lifetime contract that Philomena Lee signed. She agreed to relinquish all rights and never to attempt to see, interfere with or make any claim to Anthony in the future. Philomena Lee declared that she signed the contract of her own free will and had no legal rights to said child. Philomena and Martin went to a country hillside, where she explained that she enjoyed having sex with the man who got her pregnant and she signed the paper because she knew she had sinned. Martin’s comment was f-ing Catholics. Philomena said she had worked for 30 years as a nurse. Philomena Lee never mentioned a husband or her other children, aside from Jane. Martin and Philomena had another nightcap at the pub before Jane took Philomena to their room for the night. Martin asked the local bartender about the fire, and he explained that the sisters had a bonfire in the field outside the abbey and burned all the records themselves because they were ashamed that they sold the babies to America and they didn’t want anyone telling stories. The Americans were the only ones who could afford to pay 1,000 pounds for a baby, and even Jane Russell the actress visited Ireland to buy an Irish child from Derry in 1952. Martin called newspaper Sally to see if she was interested in the Lee story, and she approved it and insisted that it have either a good or bad ending. Martin told Philomena and Jane that it was likely an American couple that bought Anthony. Martin called the Sacred Heart Adoption Society for information, and they sent him to the Irish Adoption Board who then sent him back to Sacred Heart. It was a dead-end on that side of the pond, but then the ex BBC Reporter Martin spoke with his contacts in Washington D.C. USA and he believed he could track down records. He told Philomena that as Anthony’s birth mom, she had rights and the Americans would be legally bound to provide her information when the contract stated otherwise. Jane planned to stay behind while Martin and Philomena went to the USA to look for Anthony since Ms. Lee couldn’t forget the boy even though he was too young to remember her. Martin and Philomena boarded British Airways, and Martin’s ex-coworker, Alex, said hello from first-class. Alex spoke to Martin, who silenced Philomena from telling Alex what they were up to. The plane landed at the Washington Dulles airport in DC, and Martin and Philomena checked into their room at the Washington Court Hotel. Caroline returned the call to her old BBC pal Martin. Caroline worked at the immigration records office and he wanted her to search for Anthony’s arrival in the US using his date of birth and year of arrival. Martin then wanted to walk off their jet lag by going to the Lincoln Memorial. Philomena wanted to stay behind to watch Big Momma’s House because she saw a preview and thought it was funny with the black man dressing up like a black woman. They went to the Lincoln memorial, where Martin took happy and sad pictures of Philomena Lee and told her about quid pro quo and how expensive it would be to track someone down. Philomena Lee was concerned that Anthony might have been a drug addict, overweight (Americans ate too big of portion sizes) or died in Vietnam. Martin calmed Philomena down and advised her not to worry. She later knocked on his room door and thanked him for giving his time up to help her find Anthony. The next morning, Martin called Caroline again and asked her to email him the immigration records while he searched on FindYourPeople.net. Martin was rude to the waitress and Philomena who just wanted to make the most of her American experience with a free gourmet breakfast. Martin received the email from Caroline’s private records at her work and it featured a picture of Dr. and Mrs. Hess arriving at Midway airport in Chicago with their new children Mary and Michael (Anthony) who they just adopted from Ireland. Martin searched the name and discovered that Michael Hess (DOB 7/5/52) was a Republican lawyer, key advisor during the Reagan administration and chief legal counsel to George Bush Sr. Michael died on 8/15/95 eight years before. Philomena brought Martin blueberries even though he didn’t want breakfast, and he was silent so she thought it was because he told her before she left that it was quiet time. She then looked down and saw the picture of the adult man on Martin’s computer and identified him Anthony. Philomena Lee hysterically sobbed in Martin’s arms when she learned that Anthony was dead. Martin and Philomena went to the airport to return to Ireland because she wanted to be with Jane. Martin called Sally and told her that Anthony was dead and there was no story, but Sally didn’t want it to end that way so she told Martin to find out how Anthony died. She insisted that Martin keep Philomena Lee in America to make an even better story even though she was very upset and felt the loss of Anthony a second time. Sally reminded Martin that he had to finish the story the way she wanted it in order to get paid because he signed a contract. Philomena made the decision herself to stay in America a little while longer so she could talk to people who knew Anthony. Marcia Weller sent Martin a picture of Anthony with President Reagan, and Martin informed Philomena that Marcia used to work with Anthony and they could meet with her the following day. Philomena noticed that there was a younger version of Martin in the picture, and Martin confirmed it and realized that he had met Anthony Lee as Michael Hess ten years before at the White House when Martin was reporting for the BBC.Philomena was ecstatic to learn that Anthony was polite and had a firm handshake. Philomena and Martin met with Marcia the next day, and she explained that Michael was the legal counsel for both the Bush and Reagan administrations. Marcia offered to get in touch with Michael’s sister, Mary, and then they reviewed pictures of Michael that Marcia had. One photo had him being hugged by Pete Olsson, who Marcia hesitantly said was a friend of Michael’s. There was also a picture of Michael and Marcia together, and Philomena asked Marcia if she was his girlfriend and she replied no. Marcia confessed that Michael was gay and explained that she acted like Michael’s date because the Republicans frowned upon Michael being gay and he had no children. Philomena Lee wasn’t surprised that Michael was gay, and she later told Martin that she figured he would turn out that way because he was a sensitive toddler.As Martin and Philomena drove to see Mary, they discussed using Philomena’s real name in the story and Martin said they had to. Mary showed them pictures of her and Michael’s mom, Marge, and explained that she and Michael didn’t have the happiest childhood because their doctor dad was strict. Mary’s own two sons were out back torturing their little sister as the adults were in the house. There were more pictures showing Michael with sores on his face, and Philomena guessed it right that he died from AIDS because he didn’t use a condom and practice safe sex. Mary explained that Michael wasn’t happy working for Reagan during the last few years of his life because the Republicans stopped the funding for AIDS research and blamed the epidemic on the gay lifestyle. Mary said that there was a fight between Pete and Michael’s doctor dad about where Michael would be buried, and Mary didn’t want to get involved. Mary told Philomena Lee that Michael never mentioned Ireland because he didn’t remember it. Martin and Philomena left. Martin later pointed out that it was odd that Mary didn’t ask about her birth mom Kathleen. Philomena replied that it wasn’t odd because Mary (like Michael) was too young to remember Kathleen when she was adopted into her family. Martin stopped at the local church to let Philomena could confess her sins, and he told her that the Catholic Church should confess their sins of stealing babies away from young girls and murdering others in the process. The two got into a spat, and Martin stated once again that he didn’t believe in God and Philomena called him a f-ing idiot. Martin filled Sally in on the details, and she wanted to run the story in the weekend press. Philomena was unable to confess her sins and broke down in tears, and the priest told her to have faith and assured her that God would forgive her. Philomena stormed out of the church without saying a word and told Martin that she would take out a loan to pay him back for all the expenses. She didn’t want the story published because it wasn’t her Anthony, it was somebody’s Michael and he didn’t know her. Martin convinced Philomena to talk to Michael’s lover, Pete. Martin left several messages for Pete, who refused to call him back and didn’t want to meet with Philomena Lee. Martin went to Philomena’s hotel room, but she didn’t open the door so he had the receptionist call the room. There was no answer, so the concierge unlocked the door and Martin said that Philomena was his mother so the employee would unlock the hotel door. He found her out on the balcony and was worried she had been planning to jump, and he told her that he was still trying to get ahold of Pete but Philomena knew that Pete didn’t want to talk with her. Philomena visited Pete at the bar, and he told her that Michael wore a Celtic harp pin on his business suit that matched the symbol on the Guinness beer glass. Martin explained that Michael didn’t play the harp and he cared about his Irish past, which changed Philomena’s mind since she had wanted to leave for England the next day instead of visit Pete. Martin and Philomena arrived at Pete’s house where Michael had also lived. On their stakeout, they watched as Pete and his new boyfriend drove up in a red Mazda. The two men lovers shared a kiss, and then Pete’s boyfriend left. Martin declared that they would doorstep Pete, which was a trick that journalists did to people who didn’t want to speak to them. Pete answered the door, and Martin identified himself and Philomena. Pete tried to slam the door in Martin’s face, but he put his foot in the door until Pete threatened to call the police if Martin didn’t leave. He walked away, so Philomena told Martin to wait in the car while she confronted Pete herself. Pete let Philomena inside the house, and they and Martin watched home videos of Michael growing up through adulthood. Philomena and Martin were shocked to see footage of Michael at Roscrea with the nuns, including Sister Hildegarde who Martin identified as still there since she was the sister he had seen hobbling around. Pete explained that he took Michael to Ireland like he wanted, and the nuns claimed to know nothing about Michael’s past and said he was abandoned. The Catholic nuns had told Philomena that they knew nothing about Michael even after he visited them as an adult. Pete added that the argument he had with Michael’s dad about the burial resulted because it was Michael’s dying wish to be buried in Ireland. Martin and Philomena returned to Ireland, where they revisited Roscrea. They were told to wait for Sister Claire, and Philomena said it wasn’t the nuns’ fault because they didn’t know Anthony had a different name. Martin knew that one of the sisters did know, so he went into the private quarters to find Sister Hildegarde. He burst through doors to get to Hildegarde, and the Father threatened to call security. Martin demanded an answer from Hildegarde why she kept quiet when Michael and Philomena visited. Sister Hildegarde replied that she kept her vow of chastity her entire life, and that made her closer to God and more righteous while the girls got themselves in trouble by having sex and bringing God’s child into a world where the immature girls could not properly care for HIS children. Martin told the sisters that they should clear the overgrown graves of the innocent people they buried in their cemetery and remember them instead of trying to hide them. Sister Hildegarde argued that she only answered to Jesus, and Martin argued that if Jesus were there he would tip Hildegard out of her f-ing wheelchair and make her do it herself. Philomena Lee came into the room and reporter Martin and her got into an argument because she kept her silence while he stood up for her. Philomena ended it by telling sister Hildegarde that she forgave her for what she did because Philomena didn’t have a son and Michael died from AIDS caused by gay sex (although it appeared in his photos that Michael was not gay until after he was an adult and was working in Washington D.C.). She told Martin that she wasn’t going to be like him and hate people. Sister Claire took Philomena to Michael’s grave in the Abbey cemetery, and reporter Martin told the Catholic priest and sister that he couldn’t forgive them. Martin bought a Jesus statue from the Catholic gift shop, and he gave it to Philomena to put on Michael’s grave and told her that he wasn’t going to publish the story. Philomena decided that she wanted the story told anyway, and then she and Martin left the abbey and let Michael rest in peace. Feeling happier, Philomena told Martin the whole storyline of the book she just finished reading on their car ride back, The Saddle and the Loom, before he could read it himself like she had done with another book that Martin had planned to read on the flight to America so he never read it. Martin published his book, “The Lost Child of Philomena Lee” in 2000, and thousands more children that were adopted from Ireland were looking to be reunited with their birth mothers who were shamed by the Catholic Church. Philomena currently lived in South England with her children and grandchildren and often visited Michael’s grave at Roscrea. Martin became an author and broadcaster and went on to publish many books about Russian history. This movie had a budget of $12 million and grossed over $100 million at the box office and was also nominated for 4 Academy Awards. The movie cover art listed, Rex Redd, The New York Observer, “The most powerful movie of the year.” Peter Travers, Rolling Stone, “Moving and memorable.” Mary Corliss, Time Magazine, “A triumph for Judi Dench. Brilliant. A performance of grace, nuance and cinematic heroism.”