With both Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce in a movie, what could go wrong? When we saw the poster plastered on Netflix, I knew this would be a great movie. I fervently prayed that all the rest like directorial touch, the writing, the screenplay, cinematography would not fail these two great actors. If this was an action film, maybe I can forgive the storyline and all the rest and just rely on the stunts. Theirs was a dramatic film and I bore easily with these kind of genre if not properly handled well by production people.
Gladly they pull it off with style. This movie now is the best movie this writer has watched for my entire lifetime. I have not been a religious of lot lately and I had thoughts going over the content when I decided to watch this film. I relied on both actors to bring home the story to my heart and again, I do hope it won't bore me with the details. Bore me it did not.
The movie I thought would be carried by these two great actors, but I was wrong. The story in itself was the home run and the two simply were just the messengers. The continuity of the scenes were superb and I was not confused with the back stories that pop up more often during the first part of the film. When drama movies give you lull time in the story to afford your mind wander or heaven forbid let you fall asleep, this one affords none of that. When you think there's a lull, the scenes are important to the story, of how it affected our hero in Cardinal Bergolglio (played by Jonathan Pryce), who later on became Pope Francis.
To give you the synopsis, the movie is a biopic about Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, a priest raised in Argentina. Its based on a true story of sorts based on history and speeches he and Cardinal Ratzinger aka Pope Benedict XVI (played by Anthony Hopkins). These two had opposing views on religion, financial and politics and there was a gap in between them that the movie bridged to create a story of what those conversations between might have been.
Early in the film, Cardinal Bergoglio got engaged and was about to go into marriage details when suddenly he passed by a church and had a chance to talk to a priest. That conversation he took as a sign for priesthood so he broke off his engagement and pursued his vocation. Argentina at that time was rocked with political turmoil and the movie mentioned his fight with the government was very much different with what others did, so this made him look like he sided with the oppressive regime, branding him as a traitor for those who opposed the government. This stigma hounded him for many years thus he continued paying the price of penance by doing service to the masses. Even when he was made a Bishop, he did not live like one, he refused the lifestyle of a Bishop and went on with his chores humbly. Consider it as his penance he mentioned in the movie. When he became a cardinal, he became a worthy rival with Cardinal Ratzinger for Papal position for which he lost. He didn't desire the position for which other Cardinals push him for, so when he went back to Argentina, he asked for an early retirement. After getting no response from the Pope, he proceeded to the Vatican to appeal for his letter, only to be called upon by the Pope himself. Upon his arrival, a series of talks ensued that made the movie grand as we call it. The battle of wits and words are so monumental in this stage, that we were enamored with the two opposing views. In the end, Pope Benedict XVI renounced the papal throne and went on with this retirement. The movie then showed Cardinal Bergoglio winning the seat unanimously and went on to be Pope Francis who wanted nothing of tradition and immediately went in front of the catholic religion with humble robes, not much of the fanfare his previous popes had undergone.
Religious films are not page turners they say but this one really stuck with this writer in the gut. There were a lot of scenes worthy of mentioning, the scene wherein Pope Benedict on the time he heard the voice of God since his early priesthood days until he became Pope and somehow lost that voice, until he heard it again telling him about Cardinal Bergoglio. We also liked the scene wherein Cardinal Bergoglio shared a mass with his Father Jalics (whom was incarcerated by the Argentine government and was tortured ) whom he reconciled with. Cardinal Bergoglio for years felt that his efforts to save him wasn't enough and he was hounded by this fact. During said mass, both hugged in tears and Cardinal Bergoglio was forgiven by Father Jalics, a very strong scene indeed. We were touched by this gesture of Father Jalics. There was a scene midway about Cardinal Bergoglio extolling how Germany and Argentina would be great teams in the finals of the world cup, and Pope Benedict didn't know much about football, in the ending credits, it showed both men watching the two teams battle it off in the finals. It was great to see Cardinal Bergoglio (now Pope Francis) rooting for Argentina, complete with the team's banner and shouting. During this time, Pope Benedict (now called Cardinal Ratzinger after his renouncement) realized the game's excitement, proceeded with their play of wit and words and with additional jovial banter against each other.
Clearly the movie was wonderfully made that I forgot about the two great actors and focused more on the story. This was a great movie and we hope future movies can be made like this. Your eyes get filled with wonderful scenes of Argentina and the Vatican, and your mind filled up as well about how these two view about their religion. They may not have evangelized the catholic religion in the film but surely their actions and words here would have done so easily.
Currently being in Netflix and we STRONGLY suggest you watch this one.
