If I had to round up the worst films of last year, there’s no question Stephen Frears‘ aimless, amateurish Lay the Favorite would be near the top of the pile. Despite a decent ensemble, led by Rebecca Hall, Bruce Willis, Vince Vaughn and Catherine Zeta-Jones, the film was quietly pushed out to theaters after a Sundance premiere, resulting in a measly $20,000 at the domestic box-office. But much to our surprise, Frears has turned around and delivered one of the most acclaimed films of the year.
Premiering on the fall festival circuit, Philomena tracks Judi Dench as an unmarried Irish-Catholic woman who, decades after being forced by her community to give up her newborn son, embarks on a search to find him with the aid of a BBC reporter, played by Steve Coogan. We jumped in on the praise at TIFF, saying in our full review, it’s’ “a work that is genuinely crowd-pleasing, but also smart, funny, touching, and often surprising. In short, it’s a film your mother will love, and unlike most Oscar-bait, so will you.” A new U.S. trailer has now arrived, which can be seen below ahead of a Weinstein Company release at the end of the year.
Philomena hits limited release on December 25th, before going wide on January 10th.