Thoughts

The film has a subtle structure. When the plot developed until Philomena came to Pete's house, the slides that looked back at Anthony's life were actually fragmented and interspersed in the entire film. With a little attention, you can find that when Philomena and Martin arrived at the monastery, the boy and girl had already got off the plane and came to the United States. The two came to the United States to find that Anthony was dead and was about to leave the sad place, but the slide showed the scene of Anthony and Mary playing at home in the United States. When Philomena and Martin found Mary, Mary couldn't recall any of Anthony's words about Ireland. In the slideshow, Anthony had already rubbed his ears with Pete. When Martin ate behind closed doors when he contacted Pete, the former Anthony had already faltered and Pete boarded a plane to the monastery where his life began. When Philomena finally knocked on Pete's door to find the home of Anthony's life and came to the monastery where the story began, Anthony had already reached the end of her life. Although eight years have passed, Anthony lay quietly in the cemetery, as if waiting for his mother's arrival. This film tells a reprint of "the child wants to support, but the child does not wait", but here is the story of "the child wants to find but the child does not wait". The film uses these slides to blur the boundaries of time, as if Anthony was also living at the same point in time, passing by his mother again and again. The director did not want the audience to know that these slides were actually a memorial, but dressed up these fragments as a vision, allowing the audience to blindly imagine with Philomena, as if they had experienced 50 with Philomena. Every painful night in the past years, I imagined that I could see my son grow up slowly and happily with my own eyes, and imagine that I could meet my son unexpectedly at the climax of the story. But the director is cruel and genius. On an ordinary morning in the United States, all of Philomena's visions were shattered. The cruel reality makes the distance of the Atlantic Ocean no longer even so far away, instead it is the yin and yang separation that makes everything impossible. After a mother let go of her son, the distance became farther and farther, and even as unexpected as the stories told by Philomena, this distance became eternal. Those slides always showed what Filomena and Martin were about to discover. Filomena, the mother of the lost son, chased and chased after him, but in the end Anthony went too fast and went to one of her mothers. Can't catch up. The structure used by the director fits the narrative intent of the film so much that the style already touches the viewer's heart, which is really wonderful.

The film presents a complete circle, and Philomena's entire journey of redemption is a replay, which has been hinted by the director from the beginning. I remember the slightly lengthy segment of Philomena telling Martin at the airport before leaving the United States. They took an airport ride and shuttled among the crowd. Philomena told Martin in detail about a development. Unexpected novel story, they happened to sit upside down in the car. That long shot reminded me of rewinding, implying that the entire journey afterwards was just a replay, and they would eventually follow the trajectory of Anthony and return to the British monastery. Even their journey is as unexpected as the story on the free rider. Even more bizarre is that after telling the story, Philomena wanted to lend the book to Martin. Martin said that he already knew the story. In reality, Martin did know Anthony more than ten years ago, and even had a relationship with Anthony. Over the fate of one side. I don't remember Philomena's story very much. When I watched it, like Martin, I lost Philomena's narration at some point. I was completely restless like Martin, and my brain was empty. Now think about it, the two short stories, one before and one after the other, may have a certain degree of reference to the development of the plot, but you can only pay attention to it after the release.

After talking about the structure of the film, I still want to talk about some in-depth thinking of the film. I think the main textual depth of this film comes from the discussion of religious beliefs. I don't even doubt that this is the director's narrative motivation. Narrative intention is an end point. The previous article mainly analyzes narrative intention. Narrative motivation is an origin. As a creator, the director has embedded his own philosophical thinking in this film. This film discusses an old question, "Is there a god?" or "What is the use of faith?" My film review was written after "I thought of myself in Hammersmith for her". I think this film review has almost the same focus and basic understanding as me, so I don’t want to display too much, just talk about me and this article. Film critics have differences in addition to basic understanding. As Young said, the director did not criticize beliefs. The film only compares theism and atheism, but in fact it is not such a stark contrast. It is more a contrast between the theory of good sex represented by Philomena and the theory of evil represented by Martin. For an atheist like Martin, no matter how Martin defends it, even if he says he has faith and believes in the truth, he is also cancelled by Philomena’s lines, because it is not a belief at all, it is just a kind of voyeurism. . Nietzsche said, "Those who fight monsters should be careful not to become monsters. When you stare into the abyss from a distance, the abyss stares at you too. Martin is the most appropriate interpretation of this sentence created by the film. Rather than saying that he believes in the truth and exposes the ugliness of human nature to serve justice, in fact, he is also becoming a person who devours ugliness. This is probably the case for the media people. Because they want to hunt for material, the media people are born to believe that human nature is evil. The so-called professional sense (just like the role of the cat in the GOT in the play) is nothing more than how a kind of ugliness can be magnified. Calculation. Martin thought he was holding justice in his hands, so the end credit and the old nun's verbal sanctions. Martin initially disdain to do "Human interest notes" (Human interest story), more or less because the human touch memoir itself is a subjective, choreographed, and provocative subject matter. People like Martin who are serious about journalism and literature are absolutely aware of this writing mode of thinking. But the further the film goes, the more it shows that Martin is actually indistinguishable from those in the media. Because the starting point for Martin to question religion is: God is merciful, why there are so many imperfections in the world. This kind of questioning is actually a questioning of human nature. In fact, another way of saying it is: there is no inherent goodness in nature, otherwise why there are so many imperfections in the world. This is a kind of extremism, but this kind of logic is very marketable. Putting it in the news industry, it is that this society has a huge group of people. They are comforted by watching various tragic stories. The more the tragedy is magnified, the more satisfied people are. This is why "Human Feelings Notes" are always popular ("Friends" and "Story Meeting"), but they can't make it to the stage (see Feng Jie and "Friends" and "Story Meeting" for details). Martin and Nietzsche said that while devouring evil, he was also swallowed by evil, and finally fell into nothingness, so that anger and paranoia consumed the spirit. Philomena saw through him at a glance, thinking that his life like this was not not happy. Philomena, who was born in a monastery, was enslaved and restrained by the monastery, but Philomena did not rebel and did not try to convince others. She truly believed what she believed, and faced it with a humane attitude. All people and things. So she regarded many strangers as "one in a hundred," even though Martin ridiculed her and said, "You are serious about probability, do you count the physical education teacher's teaching?" "(The lines have undergone huge changes) Philomena really believes in the goodness of human nature, so much so that she defended the monastery's "devil", so much so that she faithfully believed that the monastery sold her children to Americans in order to make the children live a better life. Martin sneered at these fantasies, bringing his own interpretation that might be closer to the truth. But Philomena's meaning is even more deafening: how much truth is true to the individual, truth is more ugly than lies, will my life be full of ugliness because of the truth? This is where the film discusses the difference between the good and evil of human nature finally arrives. Life like this is not happy for him. Philomena, who was born in a monastery, was enslaved and restrained by the monastery, but Philomena did not rebel and did not try to convince others. She truly believed what she believed, and faced it with a humane attitude. All people and things. So she treats many strangers as "one out of a hundred", even though Martin ridiculed her and said, "You talk about probability very seriously, do you count the physical education teacher's teaching?" "(The lines have undergone huge changes) Philomena really believes in the goodness of human nature, so much so that she defended the monastery's "devil", so much so that she faithfully believed that the monastery sold her children to Americans in order to make the children live a better life. Martin sneered at these fantasies, bringing his own interpretation that might be closer to the truth. But Philomena's meaning is even more deafening: how much truth is true to the individual, truth is more ugly than lies, will my life be full of ugliness because of the truth? This is where the film discusses the difference between the good and evil of human nature finally arrives. Life like this is not happy for him. Philomena, who was born in a monastery, was enslaved and restrained by the monastery, but Philomena did not rebel and did not try to convince others. She truly believed what she believed, and faced it with a humane attitude. All people and things. So she regarded many strangers as "one in a hundred," even though Martin ridiculed her and said, "You are serious about probability, do you count the physical education teacher's teaching?" "(The lines have undergone huge changes) Philomena really believes in the goodness of human nature, so much so that she defended the monastery's "devil" so that she faithfully believed that the monastery sold her children to the Americans in order to make the children live a better life. Martin sneered at these fantasies, bringing his own interpretation that might be closer to the truth. But Philomena's meaning is even more deafening: how much truth is true to the individual, truth is more ugly than lies, will my life be full of ugliness because of the truth? This is where the film discusses the difference between the good and evil of human nature finally arrives.

Whether Philomena’s faith has shaken this is another dark line in the film. After watching the film, I thought about it for a long time, and felt that Filomena's beliefs had changed qualitatively rather than Filomena's beliefs have been shaken. The lies weaved by faith make Filomena fall into infinite self-blame on sex, but natural instinct tells her that there is nothing wrong (even the confession scene is based on a beautiful wild scene). Desire should not be a sin, desire has its natural beauty. After Filomena put down this burden, the equation that the child should be deprived of and should be tortured by the pain of separation between mother and child because of her own crime no longer holds true. Filomena was deeply disturbed by the faith under Martin's subconscious control, so she wanted to go to the confession room to confess and get forgiveness from God. But in the confession room, Philomena understood that 50 years of pain and torture could not redeem her, and God could not reverse time and space to let her be redeemed. Redemption could not come from the confession room. Redemption itself is a false proposition. The expectation of salvation is self-deception. Because even if she finally found her son and got his son’s forgiveness, she couldn’t reverse the mistakes she made at that time, and it couldn’t make up for the irreplaceable maternal love her son had not obtained in 50 years. Philomena walked out of the church and did not wash her hands with holy water. It was a kind of confession of her fate. She knew that God could not give her a salvation anyway. The torture of day and night for 50 years was her life, and this kind of torture was destined to accompany her throughout her life. For good fortune, Philomena really couldn't get forgiveness from her son. Losing her son would be the cross of her life, and she must bear it. So she didn’t actually abandon her faith (I think the Catholic faith is actually abandoned here, the director may be Catholic Black), but her faith has become more pure, she believes in the kindness of human nature more deeply, with a kind of righteousness. Being grateful for being accepted by nature, treating people and things in this world. After all, the son had his success and happiness, and missed his biological mother, which at least gave Philomena a little relief, because in the end the son at least returned to her.

(In fact, if it is over-interpreted, this film can be said to be a ripple caused by the religious reform hundreds of years ago. The image of Catholicism in this film emphasizes mental control, and the church uses the concept of sin to restrain human instinct and freedom. The church interprets sin and asserts that it is the only way to eliminate it. It uses people’s fear of God’s punishment to enslave good people, but profit from it (selling children). This is just like the absurd atonement in the Middle Ages, I I believe the film is alluding to this. So as far as the subject matter of the film is concerned, it is actually very controversial. Perhaps this is why the film did not carry out a strong commercial promotion. From the point of view of the theme (inevitable and possible Excessive interpretation), Filomena not only forgave the church in the end, but also reconciled with the faith, established a new relationship with God, and obtained some kind of relief at the grave of her son. This liberation of human nature coupled with the confession Suspect, the refusal to go out of the church without touching the holy water and these rituals all vaguely let people see the meaning of conversion. Coupled with the arrangement of the story from Ireland to the United States and from the United States to Ireland, the religious interpretation of "Journey to the West" It is a story of returning to the original point and returning to humanity (returning to the Bible), from the Protestant country "learning" and converting to Protestantism to obtain a pure belief. I won't say much, after all, it is an adaptation of a true story. The director and screenwriter may have their own focus. , Maybe they have over-interpreted this story. The topic of old and new religion is always very sensitive. I added this paragraph to complete the film review, and leave all the extra things to your eyes.)

This film has a strong cast. Both Danqi and Coogan are actors with profound accumulations. Many of the clips in the film have exerted their full power, which is extremely touching. Coogan is also the main screenwriter of the film, but he is willing to be a green leaf in the film. He uses a character with a more static psychological development to set off the psychological changes of Dench's character. The reporter performed very well. Dan Qi's performance is so real, it reminds me of my grandma many times. There are a few passages of the most moving performances. One paragraph is that Filomena was persuaded to go to the United States at the dinner table. Filomena said that she had been missing Anthony every day for 50 years. Responsibilities have been interpreted vividly and vividly. The other is that Martin finally remembered the fate with Anthony. From Martin's ordinary words, Philomena seemed to see her son standing in front of her. The eyes that Danqi showed were the eyes of all mothers in the world. , The joy that seems to be lost and the obsession with the traces of my son really makes me feel sore as a son. Of course, not all parents and children are perfect and happy, but some estrangement will become an insurmountable distance like in the film, and there must be a lot in reality. There were mostly elderly audiences in the theater. At the end of the film, a few elderly people sat with companions, and there were also many elderly people talking quietly at the entrance of the theater. I think this film may have a bit of experience, and those who have been parents will understand it better and resonate more.

Thanks to the crew for everything they have done for the big screen.

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