Pope Francis: A man of his Word makes for an opportune release on Irish shores - it premiered in the US in May- but Wim Wenders’ new documentary won’t win over many new converts.
Wenders, who was approached by the Vatican in late 2013 to lead the project, doesn’t make any attempt to hide his reverence for His Holiness, and as the title suggests, the German filmmaker wants us to hear the words of the supreme pontiff.
Beyond acknowledging that Francis is the first pope from Latin America and the first Jesuit to take over the powerful papacy role, Wenders, who once had the desire to be a priest, isn’t concerned with biographical details.
The majority of the docu-portrait is dedicated to Pope Francis speaking directly to the camera with conviction, sharing his views on the state of the world, while vehemently condemning consumerism and denouncing corporate greed.
"We must all consider if we can become a little poorer," Francis says early on.
Wenders interviewed the pope for eight hours over two months but yet we never get a real sense of the man himself. The lack of hard questions brought to the altar gives a sense of ambiguity to the end result. His laudatory documentary delivers a mostly contained look at the path that brought The Bishop of Rome into the papacy.
Only one brief flashback of the 266th pope, as the then-archbishop of Buenos Aires, is shown from 1999 as he addresses a crowd at the Plaza de Mayo. No extra footage or narration of his life before the clergy is offered up, suggesting viewers are being kept at arm's length throughout.
We see the pope traveling about in his modest Fiat, answering children’s questions, delivering an address at the joint session of the United States Congress to a standing ovation, and visiting a detention center in Philadelphia to talk about forgiveness.
Francis seamlessly quotes Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky and cites environmental studies backed with hard statistics, but when it comes to delving into contentious issues such as child abuse and the Church’s attitude to gay rights, his answers remain elusive.
In the interviews, Francis emerges as a charming, gracious figure but after a while, his words all start to blend together, and the 96-minute documentary plays like an exhausting sermon.
Pope Francis is a stimulating subject, but the film's lack of context, makes it feel like a sleek promotional video that is blowing out hot air instead of white smoke.
Laura Delaney
