We Have A Pope (2011)

We Have A Pope aka Habemus Papam

Italian film billed as a reluctant pontiff comedy has some dramatic heft and ultimately doesn't go in quite the direction I thought it would. The most common description of the film (the one you find on its IMDb page) goes as follows: "A story centered on the relationship between the newly elected Pope and his therapist." Now based on this description alone I can write a pretty standard endearing comedy in my head, but the fact of the matter is that the two central characters, Cardinal come Pope designate Melville (French actor Michel Piccoli) and the atheist psychologist brought in by the Vatican when the new Pope refuses to appear in public (Nanni Moretti, also the films director) spend very little screen time together. Early on Melville escapes from his Vatican handlers and strikes out by himself in Rome, needing some time to reflect on the awesome responsibility of the new position he's been asked to hold, while the never named psychologist is forced to stay cooped up in the Vatican as the Conclave never officially closed and no one is suppose to leave, in part to prevent leaks to the media.

Melville ends up in the company of a group of actors and we learn that being an  actor is what the old man had originally wanted to do with his life, but his sister rather then he was the one admitted to an acting school. Moretti, hold up with a bunch of aging cardinals, tries to practices his wears on them for a while, but mostly ends up playing cards with them, and eventually organizes a round robin volleyball competition among the various colleges of cardinals, which is the films comedic high point. Despite his longing to be an actor, and a perfect set up to allow him to appear on stage as one (the troops lead actor has something of a psychic breakdown and Melville knows his lines) the film choses not to take the obvious route, nor does atheist Moretti ever achieves a spiritual epiphany among the cardinals, nor are they much influenced by him. In fact the ending was a surprising downer, but not an inconsistent one given what comes before. On the whole a clever bit of somewhat insightful film making. ***