Starring Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Pryce. Directed by Fernando Meirelles.
We are in awards season, and this year with the Golden Globe nominations out and the Academy Award nominations to follow, we are in a position where three Netflix films are vying for awards glory. The Two Popes is perhaps the least showy on the surface but also the most surprising.
The Two Popes charts the weekend. It is about Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, better known as Pope Benedict XVI, who spoke with Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio regarding his desire to retire from his position, and the tension between the two.
From the beginning, we know the outcome that eventually, Ratzinger will retire from his position – the first Pope to do so in over six hundred years, and Bergoglio will take his place. What we get is, aside from a little explanation of how the Vatican voting system works, a drama about two people who are very different. Famously, Pope John Paul II was pope from 1978 until his death in 2005. He brought the church through the Cold War (and helped end Communist rule in much of Europe) though he was also noted for holding classically conservative views. In the wake of Benedict XVI’s election, there was much division about the choice.
Famously, Ratzinger had been in the Hitler youth and was even more conservative than John Paul II. The drama doesn’t shy away from examining this: at one point, someone dismissively refers to him as “the Nazi”, and even his harshest critic Bergoglio believes to retire would bring about scandal.
Director Fernando Meirelles has a definite style and brings it to the film, mixing drama, comedy and a sense of both intimacy and grandiose views. Perhaps best known for directing City of God and The Constant Gardener, here he shows us how big the buildings of the Papal are, that each room is a huge area that people are often alone in.
Adapting his non-fiction book, Anthony McCarten (Darkest Hour, Bohemian Rhapsody) does his best work – there’s a certain nuance that has been lacking in his previous work. It shows the men as fallible human beings and also wringing comedy from the interactions of two people.
In their central roles, there is much to love – it’s fairly obvious that Jonathan Pryce looks like Bergoglio. The jokes happened the minute he was voted in, but his human portrayal of a good man is both engrossing and moving (apparently Pryce’s own son asked him if he had become the Pope). The same too can be said for Anthony Hopkins, who has recently been casting in so-so blockbusters unbefitting the thesp of his prowess. Both men treat their roles with reverence but make them into actual people. It all gives the film physical and emotional depth.
The extended flashbacks that give context to why Bergoglio is the progressive, personable man he is, is brilliantly realised as it shows us the history of Argentina. It shows that he is a man who chose to become a priest because he said, “It was inevitable.” The film’s climax might be two men confessing their guilt to one another, but it’s not a heavy film – it’s a film of great levity. Discussions are had in relation to the beatles, pizza and of course, religion.
The film never judges the Pope’s conservatism, but it does relish the oncoming reform that Bergoglio, the first Pope Francis, will bring. The film knows he will bring about change: a move to more liberal intention, a concern for the poor and his own humility. Bergoglio will become the first Jesuit Pope, the first Pope from the Americas, the first Pope from the Southern Hemisphere and the first Pope from outside Europe since the 8th century. His change will bring about a better church.
It’s fortunate that the news of him releasing information about the historical cover-ups of child abuse within the church has come about as this film is released on Netflix, especially since the film does actively deal with Ratzinger’s complicity in covering up several cases. But the film ultimately upholds a Christian value of forgiveness and moving forward.
It might sound crazy that a film about two old guys discussing their differing opinions of the church shouldn’t be as engrossing and thrilling as it is. However, this late-in-the-year movie might just end up on some of the best lists. Amen.
