The Two Popes

An outstanding conversational drama with a fantastic cast. Light on its feet, funny and touching. The popes are both nice people and, thanks to the excellently written dialogue, you get an exact idea of both of their viewpoints. The scenes with Anthony Hopkins having a Fanta and a pizza inside the Sistine Chapel and he and Pryce watching football and drinking beer are priceless. An unbelievably humane and positive movie. (06.09.2020)

I liked the way it was filmed, acted, voiced, performed. I don't care that it's a movie about Catholic bigwigs. Overall, I don't even think the film had aspirations to be a faithful historical reproduction. I think it wanted to show two gentlemen getting on in years and becoming friends, even though they root for different teams. The fact that they both tried out for the papal chair is simply taking advantage of the alluring setting. An enjoyable film, it flows very nicely; the two hours passed like a breeze. I just walked away satisfied, absolutely not wanting to think about everything the Pope symbolizes, how much that circus costs to maintain, what all he's covered up. For me, it's a nice film with no critical overlap. (25.01.2020)

In this pleasant conversational film, you will see the pope watching Inspector Rex and enjoying a slice of pizza. Meirelles wins viewers over with his depiction of the pope as a man who also needs to confess and who may also have doubts about his mission. The friendship that is gradually established between these two priests, who are incompatible from the start, becomes the film’s main storyline. Both of the lead roles are very well cast. Hopkins portrays the German radical with his typical gusto and Jonathan Pryce’s naturalness is absolutely sufficient for playing his gentler opposite. (08.01.2020)

In the first hour, I was a bit puzzled as to why I started watching a film that, besides Netflix's recommendation, was completely out of my usual thematic preferences, and I suspected that it would bore me. However, in the second hour, the story grabbed my heart, and I really enjoyed both popes. Pryce and Hopkins are most reliable performers, and I learned quite a bit about the situation in the Vatican since 2005, that is, after the death of John Paul II, about whom I had slightly more knowledge. I don't recommend it to popcorn-movie fans, but if you liked the trailer and are a bit hesitant like me, I say go for it. A big surprise, especially after the more classical first half. The second half offers a feel-good spectacle that you wouldn't expect in a similar movie... 7.5/10 (27.12.2019)

An amazing humanization of two characters about which you may hear but it is almost impossible to get a little bit closer to. The closest I was able to get was when Pope Benedict XVI came to Stará Boleslav 10 years ago. But even that is nothing in comparison with this movie, which is humorous, enjoyable, interesting and mainly full of dialogues between two completely different people that have, precisely thanks to their differences, a lot to say to one another. The movie has great dialogues that may be unnecessarily long in the 2nd half; otherwise it would have been good enough for 5 stars. (31.12.2019)