The Two Popes

Directed by Fernando Meirelles
Written by Anthony McCarten
Starring Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Pryce, and Juan Minujín
MPAA rating: PG-13
Running time: 2 hours 5 minutes

by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

“Popes - They’re Just Like Us!” was the tag line running through my mind while viewing Fernando Meirelles’ curious, fun The Two Popes. Here’s Pope Benedict enjoying Fanta after a long day of Pope-in! Here’s Jorge Bergoglio, Pope Francis, trying, and failing, to book a flight on the phone! Here’s the two eating pizza that came from a food cart! Look at Bergoglio schooling Benedict on Abba! Can you believe Benedict’s favorite tv show is a about a dog cop, called Kommissar Rex? (That’s a real freakin show). It’s all quite refreshing and twee and enjoyable, except when The Two Popes veers into an entirely different film. There are two movies fighting for your attention within Popes - the one with Anthony Hopkins (Pope Benedict) and Jonathan Pryce (Pope Francis) commanding scenes with nothing more than charisma, acting chops, and dialogue, a master class on subtlety and expression. Then you have an overly dramatic re-telling of Bergoglio’s young life in Argentina (Bergoglio at this point played by the solid Juan Minujín), recounting what originally led him to the church while exploring his somewhat scarred past during the Argentine Revolution that found him a bit on the wrong side of history, despite his best intentions.

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