Canadian director Philippe Falardeau’s feature film about the Lost Boys of Sudan is a predictable yet thoroughly enjoyable tale about perseverance, love and humanity’s odd bilateral nature. The movie starts in Sudan where a number of youth are displaced after their parents are murdered during the second Sudanese civil war. Alone and desperate to survive, they begin a long and dangerous march to Kenya. 

Frears’ movie departs substantially from the book while telling a fascinating tale of motherly love and indicting the Catholic Church’s operation of Magdalene laundries. These facilities, which were designed as rehabilitation centers for unwed mothers, often operated like prisons, and Philomena’s story puts a face to the tragedy many young women endured. In the film, Sixmith (portrayed winningly by Steve Coogan), a journalist, learns that the now elderly Philomena wants to find her lost son. 

It’s hard to tell if Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s contemporary re-imagining of Henry James’ 1897 novel is too ambitious, or not ambitious enough; either way, the promising film features unavoidable plot holes large enough to fall straight into. There’s no question that Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan are both superb actors, but as little Maisie’s inept, spoiled parents, not even their combined power can fill these empty characterizations.