Habemus Papam 2011

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Whenever it stays with Piccoli ... it's mysterious and moving, struck by the humility of a man who's not up to playing God. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: The movie is a near-relentless intellectual muddle, throwing out signifiers and metaphors lazily and to no particular effect. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: 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. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: It's probably unfair to pine for the movie a director didn't make, but it's disappointing that Nanni Moretti's Vatican dramedy We Have A Pope has so little to do with the actual selection process for a new pontiff. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: Though skeptical, the film isn't at all mean-spirited. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Melville (an excellent Michel Piccoli), not being the front-runner, is caught so completely unawares that he goes into meltdown mode while the world waits. Read more

Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times: A gentle fable whose humanist heart beats in Michel Piccoli's nuanced performance. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: There's a sweetness to Italian director Nanni Moretti's "We Have a Pope" that belies its seemingly unholy premise... Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: What grips the movie, for all its amused glances at Swiss Guards and ceremonial pomp, is the prospect of a single soul in crisis. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: It's a half-sweet, half-rueful existential drama in which the satire comes secondary. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR: Despite moments that strain awfully hard to remind us that the church and its new leader are in crisis, it's basically habemus comoedia. We have a comedy. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: What appears to be an amusing tale of a leader who has lost his way is also an unapologetic challenge to faith itself. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: The film is perhaps 15 minutes too long, and there are a few too-convenient scenes, but overall "We Have a Pope'' should prove a crowd-pleaser. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: We Have a Pope takes its shots at the institution of the Catholic Church, but this is by no means a scathing satire. It's more of a character study, insightful and nuanced, about a man grappling with a profound sense of inadequacy, questioning himself. Read more

Philadelphia Inquirer: Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: "We Have a Pope" has great heart. Read more

G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle: Piccoli gives the film a depth it perhaps doesn't deserve. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: On the surface, this Italian dramedy about a troubled cardinal reluctant to accept his election to the papacy is a likable, understated farce. Look closer and you'll see that it has serious issues on its mind. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: This is rich material that Moretti mines for both superficial absurdity and deep pathos. But he refuses to forge an orthodox happy ending, let alone a tinny satire. Read more

Jon Frosch, The Atlantic: Nimble and pleasant to watch without being particularly inspired or inspiring. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Habemus Papam gets lost in the secular wilderness, as the incognito Pontiff wanders about Rome, mixing with the common flock, in an overly pat commentary on the burden of infallibility. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: It's an uneven film, almost pleasingly vague in its conclusions yet also unsatisfying. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: The usually great Piccoli-saddled with a ridiculously contrived failed-actor backstory-comes off like an unholy mix of Gerard Depardieu and Robin Williams at their sad-puppiest. Read more

Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic: Moretti's latest work looks at the church sympathetically, veristically, comically. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Always the star of his movies, even when he shouldn't be, the atheist Moretti gets caught up in his own papal bull. But Piccoli's blessed empathy prevails. Read more

Jay Weissberg, Variety: There are only so many yuks Moretti can milk from the sight of old men in clerical robes. Read more

Melissa Anderson, Village Voice: Until the potent concluding scene, the humor and shallow profundities of We Have a Pope pivot on the cuteness of geriatrics, especially when they're spiking a volleyball in slo-mo. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: "We Have a Pope" is a nuanced, moving and profoundly humane exploration of doubt, faith, weakness and resolve. Read more