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.
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.