The Two Popes a spirited look at God couple
This unlikely buddy movie takes us behind the scenes at the Vatican to tell the — somewhat fanciful — story of a chalk-and-cheese friendship that changed 2000 years of history.
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THE TWO POPES
Three stars
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Pryce
Rating: M
Running time: 125 minutes
Verdict: Papal buddy movie gets our blessing
One’s a scholarly, Fanta-drinking archconservative who prefers to eat alone. The other’s a gregarious liberal with twin passions: soccer and the tango.
This unlikely buddy movie takes us behind the scenes at the Vatican to tell the — somewhat fanciful — story of a chalk-and-cheese friendship that changed 2000 years of history.
When Joseph Ratzinger (Anthony Hopkins) is elected Pope Benedict in the 2005 papal conclave — the pomp and ceremony of which director Fernando Meirelles (City Of God, Constant Gardener) playfully undercuts with Abba’s Dancing Queen — a frustrated Jorge Bergoglio (Jonathan Pryce) believes he’ll serve God better as an ordinary parish priest.
The Argentinian Cardinal’s hopes for meaningful reform have been set back decades.
But his letters to Rome, seeking permission to retire, go unanswered.
While Ratzinger would dearly love to get rid of this thorn in his side, Bergoglio’s (today’s Pope Francis) departure would represent a very public criticism of his leadership, and thus the Catholic Church, which is already reeling from the Vati-leaks scandal.
Ratzinger summons Bergoglio to the Pope’s summer palace, outside Rome, and initially, the two men lock horns over their theological differences. But as they “relax” together after dinner, the shrewd incumbent steers the conversation to more neutral territory, such as his enthusiasm for the Austro-Italian TV crime show Inspector Rex.
In the days that follow, it become increasingly apparent that the master strategist’s mind is on bigger things. And that Bergoglio is becoming an important piece in that metaphysical jigsaw puzzle.
A genuine, mutual respect develops.
In an increasingly polarised world, in which social media actively encourages us to shut down people with opposing viewpoints, The Two Popes offers an idealistic, alternative model based on old-fashioned Christian values such as tolerance and forgiveness.
But while The Two Popes addresses its subjects’ respective demons — Ratzinger’s early failure to address child sex abuse and Bergoglio’s collusion with Argentina’s right-wing military junta in the 1970s — it might be argued that it lets them off rather lightly.
Since they hear each other’s confessions in a little room off the Sistine Chapel, the magnificence of the venue somewhat distracts us from the full weight of their revelations (and which in Ratzinger’s case are “bleeped” anyway).
The Two Popes is a crowd-pleasing (Anglo-centric) drama enriched by nuanced, layered performances from two seasoned pros.
Hopkins is a wily enough actor to provide depth and breadth to a character that might otherwise have come across as not much more than a fusty cleric — aided and abetted by Anthony (The Theory Of Everything) McCarten’s screen adaptation of his own stage play.
An entertaining piece of fiction centred around Pope Benedict’s virtually unprecedented resignation from the papacy.
Selected cinemas from December 5 and streams on Netflix from December 20