The Two Popes 4 ½ stars

In The Two Popes two master filmmakers team up with A list actors to create a thoughtful what-if vision of a meeting between two widely different individuals who have held the lofty position of the Papacy in the Catholic Church. Screenwriter Anthony McCarten (Darkest Hour, The Theory of Everything) imagines what might have happened if the previous Pope, Joseph Ratzinger and the present Pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio met at the pivotal time when Pope Benedict decided to step down from his leadership position for the sake of the church. Director Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardener) directs the meetings between Ratzinger (Anthony Hopkins) and Bergoglio (Jonathan Pryce) in convincing fashion that makes us believe the two could be friends trying to support one another through difficult times in their lives. The film opens and closes in typical documentary style. At the beginning we see scenes of the Cardinals gathering in Rome in 2005 to choose the successor to Pope John Paul II who had just passed away. The choice was Cardinal Ratzinger from Germany who became Pope Benedict. The end of the film occurs in 2013 when the Cardinals came together again following the shocking resignation of Benedict amid the scandal of child abuse that rocked the church. Here the new choice was Bergoglio of Argentina who took the name of Pope Francis. The interesting part of the movie comes in between in 2012 when the two popes meet and converse about the church, their faith and their respective roles in the church. We also get a picture of what it was like for Bergoglio as a young priest in Argentina in the seventies when a military dictatorship carried out a reign of terror against those that resisted including the priesthood. It’s clear that the two men have very different visions about the future of the church, but at the same time they are very supportive of each other. Even though the meeting between the two is considered fictional, it’s a very interesting take on what these two leaders must be like on a personal level. The film earned Academy Award nominations for both Hopkins and Pryce as well as screenwriter McCarten. Surprisingly, it was left out of the Best Picture category.