Philomena (2013)

Based on a true life event, it's a fictionalised account of how a publicly disgraced political spin doctor, while attempting to revive his previously successful journalistic career, helped a privately shamed old woman discover the truth about a life-changing event in her past, fifty years previously.
I expected more of a comedy, given that it stars and was co-written by Steve Coogan, but Philomena is more than just that. It uses v/o and flashbacks to show the wronged woman's past, while in the present it's a story of two people with almost nothing in common, sitting at opposite ends of the class ladder, working together to achieve the same goal. But what makes it more than the sum of its parts is Judi Dench, especially in the film's latter half.

4 secret knots out of 5