We Have a Pope (2011)

Waste of Money.

Pretty Good

Better than most people think

Absolutely Fantastic

Nanni Moretti is the Woody Allen of Italian cinema.Just as Woody Allen would have dealt with Jewish subjects, Moretti is concerned with what makes the world of papacy tick in the Vatican and looks at the subject from a psychoanalyst's point of view and as a citizen of the neighboring city of Rome. It is not surprising that Moretti himself plays the cheeky role of the best psychoanalyst in Italy, who has separated from his wife (who in her turn thinks she is a better psychoanalyst than her husband and is having an affair outside her marriage with yet another psychoanalyst). Even her two kids seem to be psychoanalysts in the making. Even one of the Cardinals is surviving with the help of an incredibly potent anti- depressant, an indirect swipe at the mental condition of some of the Cardinals! The Pope-elect suffers from an inferiority complex that his sister was chosen as an actress in a play when he so desperately wanted to act in the play himself (a mirror image of the squabbling kids of the lady psychoanalyst in her car). Decades later he identifies himself as an actor going through a mental crisis.Moretti means well. Moretti is interesting even when he attempts to point out quite correctly the myriad psychoanalytical situations that populate the Bible. There is visual psychoanalytic comedy, too, when Jerzy Stuhr's character receives a call from the Pope-elect and involuntarily stands up in respect as though his boss, the Pope, were standing in front of him. While Moretti succeeds in getting amazing and credible performances from Michel Piccoli and Jerzy Stuhr (who are anyway great performers), Moretti is out of his depth in portraying a bunch Cardinals as pathetic, low-IQ human beings who sulk in front of a psychoanalyst. While there may be a few among the Cardinals who fit that bill, the majority of them are well-read, intelligent, above-average individuals who might be dogged in their views but all the same are quite capable of resisting the wiles of a psychoanalyst.The best aside in the film for me was Moretti's comment that "gas" for your kitchen and heating is cheaper in the Vatican than in Rome and that you can get many goods including medicines there that you cannot get in Rome.Moretti is good at being able to bring out his views without offending anyone but he, despite his best intentions, unfortunately never can be considered as one of the best directors in Italy. But he can take comfort that he made Mr Piccoli give a superb performance in his own film.

I caught half of this movie and decided to search and record it. Then I saw it with friends who could not stop laughing throughout the movie. The acting was superb, the story line - not a dull moment! We had a feeling as if someone had a premonition of what is to come in 2013. Some scenes in the movie are quite memorable - when each of the Cardinals utters a personal prayer "Not me!" The volleyball game which shows the cardinals as regular human beings...The scene in the theater when the "Pope" recites the part being played on stage, and then when the cast are in the restaurant and he feels totally detached. A lot of touching moments in this film. It is interesting and enjoyable whether you are a Catholic or not!

This worthwhile film is a comedy the way Romeo and Juliet is: both have some funny moments, BUT...The production values are high and the arcane court ceremony of the Vatican is recreated meticulously--much better than in "The Shoes of the Fisherman". This is as close as most of us are ever going to get to a papal conclave.More remarkably, writer and director have shown realistically the human side of this powerful, devout, celibate world. The cardinals are depicted in all of their enormous ethnic and cultural diversity, as well as in their frailties and strengths, not as a bunch of holy joes but as real people struggling as best they can with huge responsibilities. Yes, some smoke, and they are capable of playing pick-up ball games.The character of the cardinal who is elected, and accepts, but then has a breakdown when cannot face assuming the job, seemed implausible to me at first. After all, he has spent a lifetime assuming larger and larger responsibilities--and he could have said, "No."But it slowly dawned on me that his otherwise unexplained name, Melville--unusual for someone apparently Italian--holds the key to the movie. When his corpulent frame is vested in his papal robes, he is the great white whale depicted by Herman Melville in Moby Dick, and this movie is that story told from the whale's perspective. As Ahab was obsessed in pursuing and catching the whale, this pope frantically tries to escape from the persona that will eventually lead him to his death.

This movie is actually money bad spent. The story line, is to my consideration, not credible at all, not because it has to be, but because the fictional side of it does not make sense in any way. The plot I assume is a bet, that intends to portrait the Pope as more human than humans, but in that intent I guess the story completely fails to engage with the audience. Imagine a Pope that denies himself the possibility of being the Pope, because of his internal tribulations and psychological doubts ? How that can happen ? Even in the utmost of fantastic fiction. In this way, the movie fails to be a historic one, a drama one or a fictional one, in my humble opinion.