The Two Popes (2019)

[Edgy MD]

When Karol dies at an advanced age, a whole bunch of cardinals meet to pick a new pope. Jorge is desperate to see the Church address the internal rot among them, but he is shy and guilty and doesn't put himself forward as a leader. Josef, on the other hand, has been Karol's right-hand man on doctrinal affairs, and is happy to thrust himself forward, if for no other reason than to provide doctrinal clarity.



Flash ahead a few years, and Josef (now Pope Benedict XVI) has summoned Jorge to Rome to talk to about the latter's application for retirement. It turns out, both men are burned out, tired of fighting internal and external forces, and carrying a lot of guilt. Benedict is all, "You can't resign! I want to resign!"



The ensuing of hijinx commences.



[FIMG=450]https://www.thekfs.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Two-Popes-Poster-1.jpg[/FIMG]

[LWFS]

Like I said in the Oscar thread, I liked this one lots more than I thought I would.



Pryce has never been one of those guys who's been a draw for me when I see him attached to something... but damn if I can think of something (save maybe that Bond movie he was in) where I haven't at least relished his performance a little. He's fantastic, and Hopkins is a great, prickly sparring partner. I don't love the vaguely sitcommy notes it strikes later in the thing, and wish the frisson of the early clashes was a bit more present in the latter portion of it, but overall... I was impressed and engaged and pleased. Great script.

[Willets Point]

I really want this to be a mistaken identity comedy.

[Frayed Knot]

Not being a Catholic I'm not always up on the history of the church ... but I would have thought there were way more than just two popes.

[Willets Point]

Frayed Knot wrote: Not being a Catholic I'm not always up on the history of the church ... but I would have thought there were way more than just two popes.

But two popes alive at the same time is much more rare, about a 600 year gap.

[LWFS]

Willets Point wrote: I really want this to be a mistaken identity comedy.

"Wait-a, wait-a, wait-a! But if I'm-a da pope-a... then who's-a you-a?"



https://thebronxchronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/2013-12-24T062454Z_4_CBRE9BM1IRG00_RTROPTP_3_PEOPLE-US-POPE-BENEDICT.jpg>

[Edgy MD]

There was a light movie back around 1980 — I remember liking it but the critics did not — in which a newly-elected-but-already-alienated-pope-sneaks out the back door and passes himself off as a simple parish priest in a poor Italian mountain village. OH, the hyjinx.



But yes, we need to a Dave-type movie in which a papal stand in ends up in the job, or King Ralph plot where an ordinary shlub gets elevated through a series of improbable events. Both would likely suck, but have good opportunities for garbled Latin, impure urges, and sight gags when the pope decides he likes actually wearing the sports jerseys all the teams present him with.

[LWFS]

I want to say that THE POPE MUST DIE/THE POPE MUST DIE(T) was something along these lines.