It was a surprisingly good drama, but I felt the ending was a bit formulaic.
The Catholic/Papal setting is technically central to the film, and provides amazing visuals, but, like many good films, the movie is centred on interesting characters and their personal struggles. The movie could be rewritten to place it in any organisation and it would still be great. I say this not to downplay the religious angle, but to highlight that you don’t have to be Catholic to enjoy it.
Having said that, the lead actors’ performances are amazing and work wonderfully together.
See, if you do have a bit of knowledge on current catholic church politics and pick up of some clues early on in the movie you can definitely see the ending coming. It’s not unguessable.
Which part of the ending can you see coming? The person who ends up being pope, I predicted based purely on narrative structure right from the beginning. The twist after he becomes pope? I never would have called it, so I’d love to know what the early clues are to that.
Personally, I wouldn’t have minded the ending if it hadn’t felt so rushed.
Spoilers
Going from the Mexican guy having like 5 votes in the previous vote to the bombing and his relatively under-written speech (to its credit!), to suddenly he wins the next vote. I had expected him to have a very good showing in the next vote, then some more politicking, and then win a final vote. Had they gone for a bigger speech in that theatre, and risked over-writing it, maybe then his sudden win would have felt more earnt. But the way they went with it felt incredibly rushed.
Once the twist of him being intersex was revealed, I had expecting to see some fallout of that in the denouement. Instead, there just…wasn’t a denouement. Which just added to how rushed it all felt.
Yeah the ending is perfectly fine in theory, there just isn’t enough dedicated to it throughout the rest of the film for it to work effectively. I haven’t read the novel so I wonder if that did a better job in this regard.
It was a surprisingly good drama, but I felt the ending was a bit formulaic.
The Catholic/Papal setting is technically central to the film, and provides amazing visuals, but, like many good films, the movie is centred on interesting characters and their personal struggles. The movie could be rewritten to place it in any organisation and it would still be great. I say this not to downplay the religious angle, but to highlight that you don’t have to be Catholic to enjoy it.
Having said that, the lead actors’ performances are amazing and work wonderfully together.
End was odd. Such a good mystery and intrigue movie and the end just wasn’t. I dislike “out of the blue” things you can’t see coming.
See, if you do have a bit of knowledge on current catholic church politics and pick up of some clues early on in the movie you can definitely see the ending coming. It’s not unguessable.
Which part of the ending can you see coming? The person who ends up being pope, I predicted based purely on narrative structure right from the beginning. The twist after he becomes pope? I never would have called it, so I’d love to know what the early clues are to that.
Personally, I wouldn’t have minded the ending if it hadn’t felt so rushed.
Spoilers
Going from the Mexican guy having like 5 votes in the previous vote to the bombing and his relatively under-written speech (to its credit!), to suddenly he wins the next vote. I had expected him to have a very good showing in the next vote, then some more politicking, and then win a final vote. Had they gone for a bigger speech in that theatre, and risked over-writing it, maybe then his sudden win would have felt more earnt. But the way they went with it felt incredibly rushed.
Once the twist of him being intersex was revealed, I had expecting to see some fallout of that in the denouement. Instead, there just…wasn’t a denouement. Which just added to how rushed it all felt.
I agree that the end is not unguessable, but it’s pure wish fulfillment, and it’s not earned by the characters involved.
Ah, yes that’s true.
Yeah the ending is perfectly fine in theory, there just isn’t enough dedicated to it throughout the rest of the film for it to work effectively. I haven’t read the novel so I wonder if that did a better job in this regard.
I agree, completely unearned. My headcanon has the movie end quite differently and more satisfactorily (but I won’t give spoilers).