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We Have a Pope
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64 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 24 Critics What's this?

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  • Summary: Nanni Moretti joins forces with the great French actor Michel Piccoli to tell the story of Melville, a cardinal who suddenly finds himself elected as the next Pope. Never the front runner and completely caught off guard, he panics as he's presented to the faithful in St. Peter's Square. To prevent a world wide crisis, the Vatican's spokesman calls in an unlikely psychiatrist who is neither religious or all that committed, played by Moretti, to find out what is wrong with the new Pope. As the world nervously waits outside, inside the therapist tries to find a solution. But Cardinal Melville is adamant: he does not want the job, or at least needs time to think it over. What follows is a marvelous insight into the concept of a human being existing behind the title of God’s representative on Earth. (Sundance Selects)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 24
  3. Negative: 0 out of 24
  1. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    Apr 5, 2012
    90
    Mr. Moretti finds broad comedy in the antics of some clerics, who can seem as sweet as children, but in Melville there is pathos and there is tragedy, and not his alone.
  2. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Michael O'Sullivan
    May 3, 2012
    88
    By turns sweet, sad, funny and poignant, We Have a Pope is the story of a man who doesn't want to be God's representative on Earth.
  3. Movieline
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    Apr 9, 2012
    60
    As lukewarm as We Have a Pope may be as a piece of filmmaking, Moretti doesn't tread particularly gently into sacred territory. The picture could be more irreverent, but at least it dares to suggest that popes are people too.

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. Dudlei
    10
    Having been born and raised in Brazil, perhaps the world's most Catholic country, movies that depict the Catholic church are usually biased. They often portray Catholic priests as either extremely perfect or extremly evil. In "We Have a Pope", however, no single character is either way. Every character is perfectly human. The Cardinals are portrayed as any other professional is. Everyone loves the religious calling, but some tend to be extremely obedient whereas others tend to be more relaxed; some find their profession revigorating, whereas others find it dull sometimes. And, this is true of any job: no matter where one works at, people are human to like or dislike the job sometimes. And perhaps the most human character in the movie is the protagonist, the elected Pope who is too afraid to accept his new calling. He comes to a point in life where he realizes that there are unfulfiled dreams in his life that he wishes to accomplish; there are things he has never experienced before and that make him see life in a whole new manner. And, again, that is true of many of us. We might reach a point in our life when we look back and wonder if that is the career or the life we really wanted for ourselves. In the end, it is not a movie about a pope or a priest, but rather, a movie about us, humans, trying to better understand our deep fears, desires and convictions.… Expand
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