Adapted from the 2017 play The Pope and written by Anthony McCarten (The Theory of Everything, Darkest Hour, Bohemian Rhapsody), The Two Popes is an imaginative take on a pivotal moment in the modern history of the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict XVI unexpectedly announced his resignation in 2013—the first pope to do so in nearly 600 years—citing a “lack of strength of mind and body” due to age. The conclave to select his successor occurred a month later, with Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio elected as the new pontiff, taking the name Francis. The Two Popes explores the presumption that the details of Benedict’s resignation are a more intriguing story than a simple retirement.
The two popes are ostensibly opposites, Benedict a conservative, ivory tower academic theologian, who comes to lament his existence outside of the realm of earthly concerns, and Bergoglio, a cardinal of the common folk, living amongst his flock and focused on modernization and reform. Yet each man harbors a blotted past that they struggle to reckon with; Benedict fails in his handling of a series of crises including the cover-up of the widespread child sexual abuse claims against the church, and Bergoglio—who we see as a young man (played by Juan Minujín) in a series of flashbacks in 1970s Argentina—is likewise consumed by his acquiescence to his home country’s military dictatorship that killed untold thousands.
Directed by Fernando Meirelles. PG-13, 125 min. Now playing at Landmark’s Renaissance Place Cinema, streaming on Netflix on 12/20
