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.

And while both films within the film are compelling in their own right, I wanted them to be completely separate. I would have loved only an hour and a half of Hopkins’ and Pryce’s bickering and theocratic debating, dissolving into the inevitable begrudged appreciation for one another. They don’t have to like each other - they just have to save the world! Ooh, there’s an idea for a completely fictitious sequel - the Two Popes side by side, fighting world crime. I would roll up to the theater popcorn-ready, armed with my favorite candy for that one. The biopic-style look at Bergoglio in Argentina is fascinating, no doubt, but feels more like Vatican propaganda. I kept wanting to go back to The Two Popes: Grumpy Old Men, but I realize this is just my preference. I have a complicated personal history with Catholicism and organized religion in general, so my tolerance here is perhaps a bit lower than other people’s.

One thing I find important to note: if you’re looking for some sort of examination of the sexual abuse atrocities that the church has covered up for decades in The Two Popes, you will find very little. This, in my opinion, is to the film’s detriment, but I realize they had to have an angle. Writer Anthony McCarten’s script feels the need to veer away from the elephant in the room while focusing more on Bergoglio as symbol of hope - like I said, Catholic propaganda. And though McCarten has written some popular true-life scripts I can certainly live without (Bohemian Rhapsody, The Theory of Everything), despite maneuvering away from a subject so pressing, his technical work here is remarkable. Meirelles and frequent cinematographer César Charlone use their good old noggin’ ideas and creativity to turn what essentially constitutes a play between Hopkins and Pryce into something beautiful and interesting to behold.

Popes is currently playing in theaters, but blesses Netflix with its presence December 20th. Pray on Pryce and Hopkins come January 5th at the Golden Globes - both are nominated in acting categories. For now, enjoy my US Weekly-style tribute to this thoroughly enjoyable gem. 🙌🙏🏻😇