I’ve avoided this film for the longest time, as I was suspicious of the premise, but I was very pleasantly surprised.
The performances are excellent, especially from Jonathan Pryce - Anthony Hopkins is fine, although I see various mannered tricks he often employs, and he doesn’t do better here than elsewhere. Still even standard Hopkins - as here - is generally excellent. But Pryce is brilliant here.
The direction (Fernando Meirelles) is what really caught me by surprise - really, really good. Such a breath of fresh air in a landscape of so many bad directors. Very ballsy and creative. Excellent use of colors. Outstanding editing.
And the script is quite decent - we’re not talking masterpiece, but it doesn’t embarrass itself and doesn’t condescend to the audience. Unlike the film I tried to watch before it, Trumbo (2015) and I only lasted a few minutes so I won’t bother reviewing it separately - suffice it to say that “Trumbo” is an insult insofar as it takes a great screenwriter’s life and the screenplay is just an atrocity; I bailed when his daughter, sitting on a horse, asks Trumbo if he’s a communist... it’s like something you’d maybe write if you were a completely talentless filmmaker and just starting out; disgusting.
All in all, The Two Popes is one of the best films I’ve seen recently. Highly recommended.
The performances are excellent, especially from Jonathan Pryce - Anthony Hopkins is fine, although I see various mannered tricks he often employs, and he doesn’t do better here than elsewhere. Still even standard Hopkins - as here - is generally excellent. But Pryce is brilliant here.
The direction (Fernando Meirelles) is what really caught me by surprise - really, really good. Such a breath of fresh air in a landscape of so many bad directors. Very ballsy and creative. Excellent use of colors. Outstanding editing.
And the script is quite decent - we’re not talking masterpiece, but it doesn’t embarrass itself and doesn’t condescend to the audience. Unlike the film I tried to watch before it, Trumbo (2015) and I only lasted a few minutes so I won’t bother reviewing it separately - suffice it to say that “Trumbo” is an insult insofar as it takes a great screenwriter’s life and the screenplay is just an atrocity; I bailed when his daughter, sitting on a horse, asks Trumbo if he’s a communist... it’s like something you’d maybe write if you were a completely talentless filmmaker and just starting out; disgusting.
All in all, The Two Popes is one of the best films I’ve seen recently. Highly recommended.
