We Have a Pope

Maybe it’s my cliché mind tinkering away, but I would bet “We Have a Pope” would be a lot funnier and even more insightful if the Cardinal in question was actually Woody Allen. This satire however starts with an interesting premise that somehow finds a way to be very thin and flimsy.

Nanni Moretti’s film starts with the death of the current Pope and the election of a new one. As you may know, the Cardinals are secluded until they can make a decision. There’s you’re movie right there. Take us inside a room that we’ll never enter and stay put. What does happen however is that the out-of-the-blue candidate Melville (Michel Piccoli) is selected, but moments before he is intended to give a blessing to the world, he gets cold feet.

Now this is understandable. To be chosen by God and given stature, power and a new identity would be overwhelming for anyone, least of all someone brought up in church to be humble. And for Melville, there’s got to be a hint of peer pressure there too. He seeks help from a psychologist (Moretti) and yet is unable to find real clarity because the nature of his new identity and the church’s seclusion policies renders him isolated. He finds his only option is to run off and rediscover himself on his own.

But “We Have a Pope” is more interested in a broad satire of the church. It seems content in showing these harmless old men merely being cute, talking about their cell phones, playing cards and holding a volleyball tournament. It provides them with nothing interesting or even spiritual to say, and their montages of frivolity are handled in dainty, stately ways that only provide miniature grace notes of comedy.

In restricting the focus to just Melville and including the Cardinals as comic relief, the movie is about how this one character deals with pressure. But it’s about nothing more broadly, not religion and not even humanity.

The film’s crushing, sanctimonious ending is ultimately confusing if not ambiguous. Not only are we left with no pope, we’re left with no understanding of how tough, or in this case how silly, it is to be one.

2 stars