{"id":8198,"date":"2020-01-23T09:02:23","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T14:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=8198"},"modified":"2020-01-23T09:02:25","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T14:02:25","slug":"the-two-popes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/23\/the-two-popes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Two Popes."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Netflix’s The Two Popes<\/em> \u2013 or, as my friend Will\nLeitch likes to call it, Coupla Popes!<\/em> \u2013 is a showcase for two great,\naged actors, Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins, playing the current and\nprevious popes in conversation as Pope Benedict is about to step down as\nPontiff and Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, tries to dissuade him through a\nwide-ranging conversation that covers almost the entire film. As a movie, it’s\nperfectly fine, often funny, generally thoughtful, a bit verbose, but also problematic\nin its portrayal of history. As a platform for the two actors, it’s quite good,\nwith Pryce stealing much of the show with his performance and dedication to his\naccent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film is based on a play called The Pope<\/em> that presents\na largely fictionalized conversation between the two men, and that is a bit\nproblematic, as the events are quite recent (mostly 2013) and the two men\ndepicted are still alive. The script definitely brushes aside the very serious\nmatter of the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal and Pope Benedict’s role in\ncovering it up; it’s broached, but the characters discuss it and dispense with\nit. There’s even a fictional confession given by Benedict to Bergoglio, which I\nfind deeply troubling given the role of penance and the Seal of the\nConfessional in Catholic doctrine; sure, it’s fake, but it feels like an\ninvasion into the character of the erstwhile Pope to assume what he might have\nsaid in such a confession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We get a brief look at the conclave where Joseph Ratzinger\nis selected as Pope over Bergoglio, who we see was a distant runner-up in the\nvoting, and thus becomes Pope Benedict XVI. He resigned as Pope in 2013, the\nfirst such abdication of a pontiff’s own volition in over seven centuries;\nBergoglio was selected by the next conclave to replace him, becoming Pope\nFrancis. The bulk of the movie covers Bergoglio’s visit to the Vatican to\nresign as Cardinal, during which Benedict reveals he plans to resign as Pope, a\nconversation that reveals their philosophical and theological differences. That\nmeandering dialogue gives us frequent flashbacks to Bergoglio’s youth and to a\nperiod in the 1970s when his actions and inactions led to the detention and torture\nof two priests under his command. The flashbacks are powerful, as are the\nscenes where Cardinal Bergoglio recalls his actions, and shows remorse; in\ntheir entirety, they’re the best parts of the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those scenes are also the best moments for Jonathan Pryce,\nwho is really superb as Bergoglio, right down to a credible Argentine accent \u2013\nin contrast to Hopkins, who makes scant effort at a German accent. Pryce is a\nsolid likeness for Bergoglio, which helps his performance, but he also infuses\nthe character with emotional depth and a lot of the charm that has made the real-life\nPope Francis so popular. He’s the more interesting character of the two in\nreality, and Pryce brings that to life on the screen. I think it’s the best thing\nhe’s done since those Infiniti commercials. It’s a contrast to Hopkins, who is\nplaying a rather uncharismatic character, and does so accurately, almost as if\nhe was more focused on getting Benedict’s mannerisms and old-man’s gait more\nthan his persona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an overall film, however, The Two Popes<\/em> is a more than\nadequate, just a bit hollow in the aftermath. The script moves along, thanks in\nlarge part to the flashbacks, although it’s so dialogue-driven that there are\ndefinitely long stretches where you want something to happen<\/em>. There are\ntoo many odd closeups of the two actors \u2013 we get it, they’re old \u2013 but the\nre-creation of the Sistine Chapel is marvelous. There’s also quite a bit of\nhumor in the movie, more than I would have expected and probably a lot more\nthan there was in any real conversation between the two men. It was after\nwatching it, however, that I realized how little the script bothered with the sex\nabuse scandal that has engulfed the Church for two decades, one that may have\ncontributed to Benedict’s abdication and that exists because of the choices of\nmen like him. Without that, it feels like there’s a giant elephant in the room\nand these two old men refuse to see it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Netflix’s The Two Popes \u2013 or, as my friend Will Leitch likes to call it, Coupla Popes! \u2013 is a showcase for two great, aged actors, Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins, playing the current and previous popes in conversation as Pope Benedict is about to step down as Pontiff and Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1146,1145,1077,215],"class_list":["post-8198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2019-best-actor-nominees","tag-2019-best-supporting-actor-nominees","tag-2019-movies","tag-movies","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8198"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8199,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8198\/revisions\/8199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}