Though Hopkins’ presence looms larger simply by virtue of his stature, Pryce has the meatier role here. Ably assisted in flashback by Juan Minujín, who plays Bergoglio as a young man, Pryce shoulders much of the film’s emotional weight. Pope Francis has a sense of regret about past mistakes that influences his philosophies as an older man; Pryce plays those scenes with a heaviness of heart that is quite touching. He’s also more blatantly funny, though Hopkins has a drollness that’s delectable. “It is a German joke,” says Pope Benedict XVI after an attempt at humor falls flat, “it doesn’t require a punchline.”
Hopkins runs a small undercurrent of mischievousness under his character’s grumpy exterior. You can see it in his eyes every time he sees a chance to steal the scene from his co-star. Pope Francis ordering a pizza from the “best place in Italy” is amusing enough, but when his dinner partner attacks a slice with the voraciousness of Hannibal Lecter, you can almost see the scoreboard marking a home run for the guy who played him.
Despite its desire to entertain while crafting a love letter to Pope Francis, “The Two Popes” doesn’t shy away from some of the more unsavory elements of its time period, though some viewers may justifiably feel it doesn’t devote enough attention to them. The Catholic Church child abuse scandal is given some airtime, but Meirelles makes a stylistic choice of blocking dialogue in one scene that I thought undercut the seriousness of this topic. There are also interview scenes where people call Pope Benedict XVI “a Nazi.” While it’s understandable that a South American filmmaker would focus more on the backstory of the first Pope from his continent, I wish Pope Benedict XVI’s character had been expanded in similar fashion rather than having him be more symbolic of the old man’s lament we’ve seen more thoroughly in “The Irishman” and “Pain and Glory.”
Still, as two-handers go, “The Two Popes” is a great one. Its slightly over two hour runtime flies by without lagging. The scenes involving how Popes are selected offered insight into the politics of the process and the editing kept those moments from becoming dull. Overall, the film is superbly acted and a lot of fun to watch, which I suppose is not enough hardcore critical substance to hang three and a half stars on, but there you go.
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