I wanted to love this... but I didn't. There is so much wrong here that I'll do it point by point. In some areas...
- It's basically to show off how great, & progressive, & smart, & faithful, Frances is, & how stupid, out of touch, inept, grouchy, intolerant, Benedict was... the bias is glaring.
- Frances is shown as: tolerant, brilliant, devout, classy, insightful, humble, & all the other flattering things you can think of...
- Benedict is shown as: out of touch, intolerant, not that sharp, or smart, no sense of humor, a pig, grouchy, unbiblical, proud, & possibly corrupt...
- They literally have a scene eating pizza, where one eats like an animal, & one very clean. Also, one is shown again, eating in a dark room, drinking pop from a plastic bottle, & one at a beautiful classy table, drinking wine from a wine glass. It's not hard to see what they were trying to do... the issue with it is...none of this stuff has any truth. It's one thing to make someone look like a outdated, rude pig if one actually was... but this is near fiction... no, not near... IT IS FICTION.
- This is shown time & time again, & in awful ways. Shown very front & center while in the garden.
What is the problem with this you may say? It is "based on a true story" right? WRONG!!!! None of these meetings ever took place, they never spoke privately like in any of these scenes, & Frances wasn't informed of Benedict's choice before others...none of that happened...which makes one wonder...why then make the Conservative look so awful, & the Progressive so great? Benedict basically played the "bad guy" damn near. Benedict also never "protected" the Priest that went to jail, HE personally turned him in & fired him himself. Again, why make him look like a horrible man...? Why??
- As mentioned before, they try to make Frances look so amazing...so in touch with God...yet some of the errors are so simple minded, it darn near ruined it. One huge error that stood out to me was when Frances quotes the Bible saying "Isiah 41 chapter 10" lol!! No way would someone even slightly knowledgeable of the Bible make this error...it is "Isiah CHAPTER 41, VERSE 10" and yes, it's kinda a big deal. When you're trying to make him look so witty & sharp, having memorized scripture...only to fudge the whole thing...? It ruins the scene.
Another is while they're in the garden, & Benedict says "God doesn't change!!!" & Frances says "yes he does!!" Wow!! This is supposed to be some big moment where he shows how the church has it wrong...? The Bible is VERY clear that God NEVER changes. HEBREWS 13:8 "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Also, MALACHI 3:6 "I THE LORD DO NOT CHANGE" haha. I couldn't believe this script... they are trying to make Frances very Worldly, & try to convince us that God "gets with the times" it was really a shame to see, & I worry for young or old who see this film & believe it has sound theology. It doesn't.
The movie is plagued by little errors like this throughout. Such as; Frances NEVER came to the Pope to retire, & the romance/love interest in the film, that they shoehorn in to consume a good 30% of the film...? Never existed! The woman did, & still does...she wasn't killed during the uprising though, & they were never anything but good friends. He was never almost married. Ever.
All of these things in the end add up to just too much. I'm not even a Catholic, & yet I'll defend THEIR truth, & this film isn't at all it.
The acting was wonderful, as was the costume design, & the film quality itself...however... as a movie about Theology...? No, it's not accurate, it's not sound in its teachings, & it's very near (if not flat out) heresy. I was waiting for one of them to say "oh what do we know, Jesus was likely a woman anyways" or "who knows, Jesus may have just been a great teacher, & nothing more"
Please just know NOTHING beyond the figures & their names themselves is accurate in this film. They even got wrong much of Frances' backstory w/ the uprising...just do a tiny bit of research & you'll see all of this yourself.
However, anyone who reads their Bible at least sometimes, they'll easily see how wrong the ideas of THIS MOVIES version of Frances are...
Common sense even gets you a ways...the film itself plays Benedict as a proud man who is power hungry...yet was the first Pope in 700+ years to willingly give his power up...think about that...
No clue how this has such a high score, my best guess is that there is a large group that are not biblically literate, so they just assume it must be accurate...
Also, I don't buy the "it's a comedy" defense. NONE of this film that is spent preaching on the two differing beliefs of each Pope are meant to be jokingly done. The humor is very limited, & when it's there...it's very obvious, & isn't used in any teaching moments for the audience. The humors about pizza, soccer, or literally jokes themself. I just can't help but feel wounded in my heart for them having Frances say "GOD DOES CHANGE" when he doesn't... it's like calling the night, day. The Bible itself is clear all over that God NEVER changes...PERIOD. (If you use Jesus as an example of his mind changing, you don't know your Bible well..."The lamb was slain before the laying of the foundation of the world"
DEVOUT Catholics, or just Christians, id sadly have to say "pass". It's meant to question the doctrine of God himself.
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