The Two Popes: Who Is Fit to Lead?

I'll confess (ha!) I was dreading watching The Two Popes and only did so because it got nominated for a bunch of Oscars (oh the things I go through for this blog). But I was pleasantly surprised, and once I was done, I fully understood the nominations for Best Actor and Adapted Screenplay (Best Supporting Actor not so much, we'll get into it). So if you're at home this weekend and feeling bad because you haven't seen any of the Oscar nominees, you could do worse than to turn on Netflix and settle in for this movie.

The movie begins in 2005 with the election of German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI (Anthony Hopkins). During the papal conclave, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Jonathan Pryce) receives the second highest number of votes after Ratzinger but he has no desire to be Pope. In fact, we follow him over the next few years and get to 2012 when he decides to resign, feeling like he can do more good as a parish priest than the Archbishop of Buenos Aires. It probably does not help that the church is in the middle of the Vatican Leaks scandal. However, when he tries to deliver his resignation to the Pope, he is continually rebuffed. The two have a long conversation, covering a breadth of topics. And in the end, well, you know what happens.

There's obviously no twist to this story: we all know that it will end with the resignation of one Pope who was traditional and mired in controversy, and the rise of our current Pope Francis, who was a reformer, expected to bring disillusioned Catholics back into the fold. But the dynamic between these two men is what makes this film such a pleasure to watch. I felt like I was watching a play, and then discovered that this movie is actually based on a play, which was adapted for the screen by its writer, Anthony McCarten. Once I finished, I immediately wanted to know what the play was like, because while the conversation between the two popes is obviously easy to imagine onstage, the movie employs several flashbacks to tell us about Bergoglio's early days in Argentina, and I'm not sure how the play pulled that off. Also, no stage could do justice to the remarkable replica they built of the Sistine Chapel. The two actors spend a significant amount of time alone in the Chapel and it was mesmerizing throughout.

Jonathan Pryce does a simply magnificent job as Cardinal Bergoglio. He looks eerily like the man, has nailed the Argentinian accent, and moves and talks with a humble, easy grace. This movie is absolutely a hagiography of Pope Francis, but I'm willing to buy it all, because I like to think that good men like him still exist in the world today. We have a lot of insufferable world leaders - one who likes to advocate for the poor and is fully cognizant of his own evolution and prior faults is a refreshing change of pace. On the flip side, we have Anthony Hopkins, who does a perfectly fine job as Pope Benedict XVI. But the man isn't even TRYING to be German. Both Pryce and Hopkins are Welsh; you'd never know that from listening to Pryce act in this movie, but you'll certainly know it from listening to Hopkins. While Pryce disappears into the role, I was aware throughout this film that I was watching Anthony Hopkins, so as far as I'm concerned, that was a waste of a Best Supporting Actor nomination. But at least he gave Pryce something to work of off.

The Two Popes was directed by famed Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meireilles, and you can certainly tell he paid more attention to getting the South American scenes exactly right while minor details like German accents could fall by the wayside. Of course, one could ask why he didn't cast a Latino in the lead role, but at least he got Juan Minujin to play the young Bergoglio for the flashbacks that were mostly in Spanish. In fact, a lot of this movie is subtitled, which I was not expecting but did enjoy - I haven't heard conversational Latin since my sophomore year of college. The end credits of this movie also surprised and delighted me and felt like something only a Brazilian director would think of. This movie never feels ponderous; it tells its story compellingly and efficiently, makes you root for Bergoglio but feel some mild sympathy for Ratzinger, and shines a light on the debate between the traditional Catholic church and the need for reform. That's a lot for a movie to accomplish in two hours, but thanks to a great leading man, deft direction, and a zippy screenplay, you'll get a good history lesson, as well as some musings on religious and moral philosophy. That's a worthy investment.