Based on Martin Sixsmith’s The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, Stephen Frears’ Philomena takes the emphasis off the child and puts it squarely on his mother. Writer-producer and co-star, Steve Coogan, not Frears, is clearly the auteur on this one. He and his co-writer, Jeff Pope, collapse about 80% of the book into a few moments in which Anthony Lee/Michael Hess’s life partner (Peter Hermann) shows Coogan (as Sixsmith) and Judi Dench (as Philomena) home movies summoning up the man’s life. The often brilliant Frears (Prick Up Your Ears; Dangerous Liaisons; The Grifters; The Queen) is just a director for hire on this one, given the reins by the egomaniacal Coogan because he says in interviews he didn’t want to tell Dench what to do.

Most of the film is filled with scenes of Coogan and Dench bonding, Coogan putting Sixsmith into situations to build up his part. He treats the title character with a kind of benign condescension, turning her into something of a simpleton while trying to make her into everyone’s “granny”. The woman, a retired nurse living in the south of England, couldn’t possibly be as naïve as the character Coogan presents. Dench’s instinctive acting belies most of the silly dialogue which even includes a bizarre reference to Jayne Mansfield’s losing her head in her fatal car crash, especially odd since featured player Herrmann is married to Mansfield daughter, and survivor of that crash, Mariska Hargitay.

Despite the dumbed-down script, the film was one of 2013’s best thanks to Dench’s performance and the emotional pull of the basic story which is told pretty much as it happened.

Teenaged Philomena is taken in by the nuns at a workhouse where she signs over rights to her child at his birth. Despite this, she is kept on at the institution and has daily contact with her son for the next four years. Then one day the boy is whisked away, never to be seen again. A kindly nun has taken a snapshot of the boy which she gives young Philomena (Sophie Kennedy Clark), her only memento of the child. Forty-two years later, the elderly Philomena begins her search for the lost child. Eight years after that her daughter enlists the aid of investigative reporter Sixsmith in finding the now grown man. Philomena and Sixsmith’s two year journey leads them to America and the discovery the institution has kept from her and eventually back to the institution where the film’s climactic confrontation takes place.

To say more might spoil it for those who haven’t seen the film, but plan to. Suffice to say that lapsed Catholic Coogan’s tirades against the Church are given a one-up by the devout Philomena who forgives a particularly nasty nun (Barbara Jefford) for seemingly unforgivable acts, thus proving herself not only a better person, but a better Catholic than the now wheelchair bound nun. Dench is extraordinary in these final scenes, her best performance since Notes on a Scandal. It’s a pity that almost all of this year’s Best Actress awards went to her Scandal co-star Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine with nary a win in sight for Dench.

Philomena is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Also available in both formats is Ralph Fiennes’ The Invisible Woman, the enigmatic actor’s second film as a director.

Fiennes’ first film as a director was his film of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus set in modern day Rome in which he also starred. This time around he does dual duty again playing Charles Dickens in a film focusing on the life of Dickens’ mistress (Felicity Jones) who he meets when she is cast at 18 in a play based on one of his works. The film is meticulously detailed with gorgeous art direction and cinematography as well as Oscar nominated costumes. It also contains decent performances from among others, Fiennes; Jones and Michael Marcus as the eldest of his ten children. The best performance in the film, however, comes from Joanna Scanlan as Dickens’ put upon wife which kind of underscores the whole idea.

A devastating train wreck sequence about 90 minutes in is the film’s highlight. It’s worth seeing, but not nearly as memorable as some of the films that have been made from Dickens’ works, particularly the 1935 version of David Copperfield and the 1947 version of Great Expectations.

Blu-ray upgrades of classic films continue at a more rapid pace than in recent years.

Criterion has released exceptional Blu-ray versions of two classics, previously available in Region B, Double Indemnity and Touch of Evil. Both are presented with numerous extras. Double Indemnity includes the weak 1973 TV remake with Samantha Eggar, Richard Crenna and Lee J. Cobb in the roles immortalized in the 1944 film by Barbara Stanwyck; Fred MacMurray and Edward G. Robinson. Touch of Evil includes three versions of Orson Welles’ 1958 film co-starring Charlton Heston; Janet Leigh and Marlene Dietrich.

It’s no Double Indemnity, but Douglas Sirk’s 1948 film, Sleep, My Love, newly released by Olive Films, gives us Claudette Colbert; Don Ameche and Robert Cummings in a decent Gaslight style thriller.

From Twilight Time this month come three quite different comedies,

James Stewart and Maureen O’Hara head the cast of Henry Koster’s very funny 1962 family comedy, Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation. Woody Allen and Mia Farrow were three years into their ten year personal and professional relationship in Allen’s 1984 show biz comedy, Broadway Danny Rose. Nicolas Cage; Laura Dern’s and Dern’s Oscar nominated mother, Diane Ladd, were hilarious in David Lynch’s black comedy, Wild at Heart.

If you have an all-region player you can finally own 1963’s 55 Days at Peking and 1964’s Circus World on Blu-ray from the UK.

Charlton Heston; Ava Gardner; David Niven and Flora Robson bring the 1900 Boxer rebellion to life in the former. John Wayne is transplanted to early 20th Century Europe in the latter whichis distinguished by Rita Hayworth’s Golden Globe nominated performance as an alcoholic has-been trapeze artist who redeems herself.

This week’s new releases include Blu-ray upgrades of Sorcerer and The Pawnbroker.