'The Two Popes'

Director Fernando Meirelles’ “The Two Popes” is a fascinating study in contrasts — of two clerics’ theologies, of two men’s personalities, and of two actors’ approaches to their roles.

Meirelles and screenwriter Anthony McCarten — who has invented conversations for famous figures in “The Theory of Everything,” “Darkest Hour” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” — begin the story in 2005, with the conclave in the Vatican to elect a new pope after the death of John Paul II. The cardinals select Joseph Ratzinger (played by Anthony Hopkins), a stern German who was expected to maintain the Roman Catholic Church’s strict doctrines. Among those receiving votes was Jorge Bergoglio (Jonathan Pryce), the kindly and populist cardinal of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Cut to 2012, and Bergoglio has written to Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, to ask permission to retire. Benedict summons Bergoglio to the Vatican to talk, and the conversations — fictionalized, of course — make up the bulk of McCarten’s script.

The talks are tense from the outset. Benedict accuses Bergoglio of being soft on church doctrine by, for example, ministering to LGBTQ Catholics in Argentina. Bergoglio, though he’s diplomat enough not to say it too forcefully, worries Benedict’s rigidity — and his foot-dragging on disciplining pedophile priests — is driving away the younger generations of Catholics.

The two men talk about lighter subjects, and develop a rapport. Benedict is a fan of a cheesy Italian police procedural show and likes to play piano, while Bergoglio is an avid soccer fan and knows where there’s good pizza in Rome.

As the conversations continue, Benedict drops a bombshell on Bergoglio: It’s not the Argentine who’s going to retire, but the German — the first time in centuries a pope didn’t leave the job in a casket.

Meirelles (“City of God,” “The Constant Gardener”) keeps the talking in McCarten’s script lively. Meirelles relies both on the actors’ abundant talent and some well-placed flashbacks — particularly of Bergoglio’s not-so-noble record during the Argentine military juntas.

It seems Meirelles and McCarten side more with Bergoglio — the man who would become Pope Francis I — than with Benedict. That could be chalked up to doctrinal bias, supporting the more liberal Francis over the conservative Benedict. But I also think back to an interview I heard once with Lawrence O’Donnell, the MSNBC commentator, about his days writing for “The West Wing,” and how they had to make Josiah Bartlett a Democrat because a government saying “yes” to new initiatives made better drama than a government that said “no” to everything.

What’s most compelling about “The Two Popes” is how Hopkins and Pryce approach their roles. Pryce aims to subsume himself into Bergoglio, mimicking the Argentine’s voice and mannerisms, and even speaking Spanish as much as English. Hopkins, the old theater dog, always sounds like Hopkins, with no attempt at a German accent. 

Even taking different paths, both actors eventually arrive where they and the story need to be — a meeting of minds between two smart, headstrong men with different views on where their church needs to go. Those parallel roads make “The Two Popes” a worthwhile pilgrimage for the viewer.

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‘The Two Popes’

★★★1/2

Opened November 27 in select cities; opens Friday, December 13, at the Tower Theatre (Salt Lake City); begins streaming on Netflix on December 20. Rated PG-13 for thematic content and some disturbing violent images. Running time: 125 minutes; in English, and in Spanish and Latin and other languages with subtitles.