The Two Popes

With the new year brings the anticipated awards season and the cinemas become a wash with Oscar hopefuls and a fair few duds which studios drop out in hope of easy money now Christmas is over. However, the changing cinema landscape has now seen streaming services getting in on the action for the past few years and one of which is Netflix's The Two Popes, directed by Fernando Meirelles, and starring Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce. The decision to include such films has sparked a lot of controversy, while they receive a limited theatrical release to tick a requirement box, but this has given artistic minds to the opportunity to take risks. Scorsese was able to make The Irishman with its gargantuan running time but how would this modest looking film fair?

Based on a true story, The Two Popes goes behind the Vatican walls and explores the relationship between Hopkins' Pope Benedict and Pryce's Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, who would eventually become Pope. One conservative and the other liberal, Meirelles explores their relationship through a meeting over several days while also exploring Bergoglio's history during Argentina's civil unrest.

This film is a tricky one to explain without revealing the entire story as it is relatively straightforward. Director, Meirelles, keeps things simple with his lighthearted, fly-on-the-wall approach that not only showcases his stellar leading men but also manages to keep the story engaging. The religious nature of the film might put some off but the story never becomes one about preaching to the audience. Instead it seems Meirelles is more interested in seeing how old men manage a burdening responsibility to represent a higher power in a role that would theoretically see them to the grave, while also adding some humour to the events that follow.

Both Hopkins and Pryce are on top form in the leading roles and the director's approach to what could be a very dry story keeps The Two Popes interesting for the most part but there is a sense of something missing to complete the story. We see Bergoglio's background but for the story to skip on Pope Benedict's life as he grew-up in Nazi Germany seems like an unfortunate omission which would have only benefitted the film.

If you have Netflix and the story intrigues you, then I would recommend giving The Two Popes a watch but this certainly isn't the most mainstream of their films. I found it be an interesting film to watch but one I'd think about ever returning to. The visuals, acting and screenplay are all topnotch but I found it to be unfortunately quite forgettable afterwards even if I enjoyed it for the most-part.