This movie is a great challenge to my deep-rooted cinicism when it comes to religion, and especially the catholic church, an institution that has surrounded me my whole life and that i've always rejected. The thought that most often popped into my head watching it was that the real story can not have been this "pretty", it felt too heartwarming and cute to represent something as corrupted as the catholic church. However, if you ignore the real life reference to this, no doubt, partly fictional version of it, you get a great, entertaining, moving film about two powerful, loved, yet highly flawed people, that try to find common ground in tolerance for the sake of some greater good. If only high-level Catholicism in the real world was as tolerant and human as this movie makes it look...
Technically wise, the way Meirelles shoots this movie to make it look like a documentary was inspired and makes for a very interesting and fun watching experience. I love his filmmaking style!
Brilliant performances from both actors! It was a fantastic story as well...full of drama and character development. All I can say is bravo!
Good acting from both Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins. It's more entertaining than you would think but it still was kinda boring.
It's 2020 and I've just started shipping Popes.
from hannibal to pope ,,,, amazing anthony
Amazing dialogues between the two popes! Really surpreended me to see how human they were represented.
I honestly didn't know what to expect, other than some vague expectation of quality based on the lead actors.
It's not a plot-heavy movie, it's rather a long conversation between two people of fundamentally different opinions. It touches on some of the controversies around the catholic church, but they really only matter peripherally, as far as they directly impact our two characters.
It still manages to have some powerful conversations about responsibility and guilt and penance.
How much of it and of the facts given are true I really can't tell, but there is a moment of confession where to audio artistically fades to 0, that feels more like a legal choice than an artistic one, and that in turn gives anything else a bit more credibility.
This movie has great performances by Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Price. This movie is based on actual events that transpired during the time and after the death of Pope John Paul. It is dialogue driven but keeps the viewer on the edge of their seats whether you are a catholic sympathizer or not.
Goes on a little too long perhaps, and it does meander occasionally. Still, with two wonderful performanances at the centre of the film, and with some insight into the faith that drives them, ultimately, I have to give this film my blessing.
Ratzinger: Another thing: you openly give sacraments to those who are out of communion. To the divorced, for instance.
Bergoglio: Oh, I believe that giving communion is not a reward for the virtuous, it is food for the starving. [...] Did Jesus build walls? His face is a face of mercy. The bigger the sinner, the warmer the welcome. Mercy is the dynamite that blows down walls.
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Ratzinger: Inoltre, tu concedi i sacramenti a chi non vive in grazia di Dio. Ai divorziati per esempio."
Bergoglio: Ah beh, io credo che il sacramento della comunione non sia un premio per i virtuosi, ma cibo per gli affamati. [...] Gesù ha mai costruito muri? Il suo volto è sempre misericordioso. Più grave è il peccato, più calorosa è l'accoglienza. La misericordia è la dinamite per distruggere qualsiasi muro.
Excellent acting from Hopkins and Price and a very enjoyable film.
The sort of behind the scenes conversations between the two popes — subtly (though sometimes not) letting their clash of ideologies seep into the viewer — is alluring and keeps things interesting. Unfortunately, the frequent flashbacks hurt the flow of the story and end up contributing for a very tedious narrative.
It's worth watching for the back and forth talks between both protagonists, held by solid performances from both actors.
Very interesting movie, assuming this is somewhat realistic I've learned a lot.
I liked that quite a few scenes were shot with a handheld camera (I assume), making me feel like I'm watching a personal conversation.
I don't care much about anything catholic in real life but this movie was interesting and the ending was hilarious.
Never heard of this movie and it came up in my Movie Club. Performances are solid, as we’ve come to expect with Anthony Hopkins. It does go a bit too slow for my liking. The cinematography is also pretty unique because it borrows typical documentary style shots, but it’s a feature film. There’s certainly an audience out there for this, but it’s not me. I can appreciate it for what it is though.
Rating: 3/5 - 75% - Worth Watching
Beautifully unique film, with great storytelling and incredible cinematography. Stellar performance from cast.
Pope Francis : We have spent these last years disciplining anyone who disagrees with our line on divorce, on birth control, on being gay. While our planet was being destroyed, while inequality grew like a cancer. We worried whether it was alright to speak the Mass in Latin, whether girls should be allowed to be altar servers. We built walls around us, and all the time, all the time, the real danger was inside. Inside with us.
Beautiful locations, brilliant actors are working for Netflix's Vatican drama The Two Popes. The writing, on the other hand, leaves more to be desired.
Pope Francis was not convinced with the direction the church has been headed and wanted to resign when he was a cardinal. He met Pope Benedict XVI to share his intentions but the pope had his own plans of abdicating the papacy. This movie is a dialogue between the two on the lush grounds of Vatican state. This also mentions the Vati-leaks, the possible reason for Pope Benedict XVI to resign.
It looks beautiful. The locations feature aerial shots of the Vatican, the pristinely reconstructed Sistine Chapel, and Pope's summer residence. All these are lush and soothing to the eyes. There are few shots from Argentina showing the background of Pope Francis. These elevate the contrast between the nature of Christianity from various parts of the world. I remembered visiting a small local church in Puducherry. All these churches look so alike yet feel so very different. The long aerial shots are great, but the meat of the film is the dialogue and that's where cinematography becomes unnecessarily overzealous. Shots don't remain steady to retain focus on the words but waver as if the cameraman feels bored by their conversation.
For a movie central to a dialogue between the two characters, the writing lacked the flair. Barring a couple of exchanges, there is rarely a lot to hold on to apart from cliches. There are some good lines like,
“Confession cleans the sinner's soul, it doesn't help the victim. Our whole church is in need of forgiveness. Where is our humility? Sin is a wound, not a stain. It needs to be treated, healed. Forgiveness is not enough.”
But they are far and few. I wanted it to be a cherishable thought exchange, or at least I expected that from two old guys ruminating over their lives and of the church, but despite having enough screen time for such exchanges, I did not get enough of thoughts.
The movie is worth watching for the acting. The casting by Nina Gold is phenomenal. Look at both the popes and their reel counterparts. The similarities are spot on. After seeing deeply human expressions from Jonathan Pryce, I wonder who else could have captured Pope Francis's essence so well. He is the star here. The quivering tone of regret, the self-loathing over the acts of the past and the anger at the institution for its acts is fluent and natural. Anthony Hopkins plays the other one, Pope Benedict XVI and comes out strong as ever. The steadfastness of his personality is well matched by Pryce's softness. Both have brilliant screen presence and have respect for the other's character. Seeing them together on-screen was a definite pleasure.
Recommended for both Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins and some pristine shots of St. Peter's Square and Castel Gandolfo.
It's 2020 and I've just started shipping Popes.
It feels like a live-action documentary and not a movie but strangely enjoyable none the less.
Good movie and great performance by both actors.
I was little bit surprised that all these meetings are fiction... And I don't remember it being mention in movie (before or after). "As that drama plays out, the film offers a fascinating window into the debates between two ideologically opposed religious leaders. As for the literal veracity of those conversations and the situation that created them, the truth is that they’re mostly imagined. Bergoglio’s letters of resignation are based on fact, but his subsequent visit with the pope is fictional, as are the conversations between the two." Source: https://time.com/5753982/the-two-popes-movie-true-story/
Very very good movie. It is slow moving and dialogue-heavy but I was highly entertained by the brilliant performances of Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce. Both of them are perfect for the roles.
The performances of the main characters are just brilliant, the direction is superb and managed to portray the two popes as humane as possible.
The only thing that made me drift away from the movie was some dramatic interactions that I thought it could be a little unrealistic and the excess of flashbacks.
Wonderful acting from both Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Price. They fit their role perfectly!
Better than the real thing.
What an amazing movie,Sir Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce are such amazing actors especially in this great movie...10/10
Didn't know what to really expect, the plot that's not really present left a bigger space for the words and conversations of the two men! Despite the slow pace of the movie, I found it quite interesting and the clash of ideology was brilliantly performed!
Shout by mercuriorossoBlockedParent2019-12-21T01:10:21Z
"Two of the finest performances of the year."