The Pope’s Speech

My husband, on more than one occasion, has accused me of having obtuse and humorless reactions to his jokes ( considering the possibility that he’s not funny would be out of the question because, in all honesty, he’s pretty funny), and I think I may have just posted an obtuse and humorless reaction to a comment on a message board. Maybe when it comes to Italian movies, I can’t take a joke.

After a website’s brief synopsis of Nanni Moretti’s We Have A Pope (soon to be released in the United States by Sundance Selects) a reader posted the comment, “So it’s basically The Pope’s Speech“.

I, of course, had to rush in and correct him, like a child corrects a teacher, who says, “See you tomorrow”, on a Friday.

The poster of the comment was probably just making a joke, but just in case anyone jumps to the conclusion that We Have a Pope is just a King’s Speech rip-off, I need to clear up the misconception.

The similarities: Both movies are about powerful men with problems that are interfering with their jobs, and in both an expert is called in to help.

The differences: The King’s Speech is a feel good, triumph of the human spirit, buddy film, with an ordinary man developing a relationship with a monarch and playing a monumental role in helping him overcome an adversity.

In We Have A Pope, the ordinary man, played by Moretti, doesn’t end up helping very much and really isn’t given the opportunity to do so. From the beginning, the Pope knows that he has to work things out on his own, and though the story is thought-provoking, it’s not so sentimental. We Have A Pope doesn’t end with everyone giving each other the figurative high-five, as in The King’s Speech, and Moretti’s character gets no teary eyed thanks, just the OK to go home.

So now that I have completely dissected and ruined a funny comment, everyone can feel free to call me an obtuse asshole – I have it, as usual, coming to me.

Who knows, maybe be if the Vatican had called in Geoffrey Rush instead of Nanni Moretti, the outcome would have been different in We Have A Pope.